The Rag Trade
by RussM
Summary: The gang are asked to help out when clothes begin to vanish overnight from shops all over Coolsville. They are just about to hand the case back to the police when a large clue flaps into view.
1. CSI:Coolsville

"Jeepers Freddie that's the fifth clothes shop where all the clothes have just vanished overnight, this is really causing problems for everyone" said Daphne as she looked out of the van at yet another clothing shop with a 'Closed – Clothes Missing' sign in the window.

"Can't say _I've_ had any problems" said Velma smugly and then proceeded to ignore Daphne's icy stare.

"Like me neither" said Shaggy.

"Nobody asked you two" said Daphne who then turned to face the front muttering something about the stylistically challenged.

"Anyway the Coolsville Chamber of Commerce have asked us to investigate" said Fred

"Well I don't think this should be too bad a case, like unless it's due to a giant moth" Shaggy laughed nervously.

"Reah Rothra" said Scooby.

"I think people would have noticed Shag" said Velma turning round to give the pair a reassuring smile "Besides moths are only tiny."

"Like OK if you say so Velma" replied Shaggy, not entirely convinced by her reassurances.

For the next few days the gang combed the shopping malls and clothes stores of Coolsville for clues. There were a few discernable patterns; all the shops catered to the middle- to high-end part of the clothing market, all had good security systems and no alarms were activated. There were a few obvious suspects, a new outdoors clothing store and a motorcycle accessories shop were unaffected but there was no evidence to link either of them to the disappearing clothes. Shaggy's giant moth theory briefly gained some traction the next day when a pile of what appeared to be grey scales were found outside the most recently affected store. There were also some unsubstantiated rumours going round that a giant moth had been sighted near the store the night the clothes went missing. The gang hurried over, this was the first bit of physical evidence they had found so far, they parked the van outside and piled out.

Daphne fell to her knees when she saw the affected store "No! Not Teeny-Tiny Hats. Noooooooo!" she cried pounding her fists on the floor in despair and frustration "No, no, nooooo why, why, why, why did this happen?"

"Who are they" said Fred above Daphne's lamentations.

"They make tiny hats that cost a lot of money and serve no hat related functions what so ever" said Velma.

"Velma, they are elegant fashionable creations, not everything has to be functional" said Daphne looking up.

"You might as well just glue a bagel to your head and be done with it" muttered Velma.

"Keep that up and I'll glue a whole bag of bagels to your head then let Scooby loose on you" said Daphne standing up and pointing her finger at Velma.

"Ream rheese rand ralmon?" said Scooby.

"That place would change hundreds of dollars for a hat like that" retorted Velma.

"Or perhaps I'll use pastrami and mustard then let Shaggy loose on you" said Daphne, Velma drew breath ready to reply but before she could a mischievous grin crept over Daphne's face "maybe even with some avocado and prawns and let that guy you keep meeting up with for coffee at the bookshop loose on you, Gustav isn't it?" Velma closed her mouth, her face going a deep red. _Yes! Game, set and match to Miss __Daphne __Blake_ thought Daphne.

"Hey toasted bagels" said Fred looking at Velma.

"Mmmm I love toasted bagels, like do we have any?" said Shaggy coming in at the tail end of the conversation but was interrupted as Velma dragged the gang off to investigate. Sure enough down the side of the shop there could be found numerous mottled-grey triangles with rounded corners. From a distance they did look like scales from a moth's wing, but the gang all knew initial appearances could be deceptive.

"Man these things look and feel like Frisbees, hey they even have that little sticky-out bit of plastic like real Frisbees" said Shaggy as he picked one up and threw it to Scooby.

"Shaggy, you're a genius. This _is_ just an odd shaped Frisbee" said Velma examining the object further "and I think I know where they came from look" Velma pointed to some boxes stacked up against the shop next door. It looked like a couple had fallen from the top and disgorged their contents when they hit the ground. The shop in question was a sports store with a line in niche items so triangular Frisbees would be right up there street. They went inside to check out the theory. The moment they were inside they realised their mistake as Fred's pupils dilated at the sight of all the unusual sports equipment. While Daphne talked to the store owner Shaggy, Scooby and Velma tried to prevent Fred from buying all the stuff in the store.

"Sorry about this" said Daphne as she watched the scene.

"Ah no worries miss we get this all the time. You should see what happens when a university team turn up; it's like kids in a candy store."

"Still we'd better get him out of here, thanks for the help."

With some effort they managed to get out of the store, Shaggy and Daphne put Fred's purchases into the van while Velma and Scooby dealt with Fred.

"I'm bored now" said Shaggy as they closed the back doors.

"I'm hungry now" said Velma brushing herself down.

"You two sure you're feeling OK?" said Daphne as she grabbed hold of Fred's ascot to stop him going back into the store "still it's getting close to dinner time."

"Yeah let's eat and review where we've got to then call it a night" said Velma.

A short time later and the gang were sitting in their favourite diner reviewing where they had got to so far.

"Well gang this looks more like a case the police should be dealing with not us" said Velma with a yawn then quickly turning her attention to her chilli and nachos before Shaggy and Scooby did.

"Man Scoob and I are more than happy with this case; it's just a regular…" Shaggy started to speak but was interrupted by a commotion from outside. A woman ran screaming into the diner, her clothes hanging off in strips. Breathless and terrified she clutched what remained of her clothes to herself as Daphne and a couple of the staff hurried to her aid.

"It, it attacked me, ate my clothing" she began to explain.

"What did?" said Fred getting up from his seat.

"That!" she shrieked pointing at the window, for a brief second they saw the form of a giant moth, over five feet tall, before it flapped away.

"Like I agree with Velma, this is a case for the regular police" said Shaggy and he and Scooby cowered under the table each clinging to one of Velma's legs. A few seconds later Velma smacked down a hand and a paw as they reached up for her food then grabbed a handful of their fries by way of compensation.

One they had eaten they piled in the van so Fred could drop them off home.

"Like the internet is our friend" said Shaggy looking up from his phone "I've found a site called 'giant moths over Coolsville.'"

"The clue is in the name, it's a website collating eyewitness reports of giant moths seen over Coolsville" said Velma looking over his shoulder.

"Rand rarries radverts ror rew rittza race."

"Ohhh and a new clothes store" said Daphne snatching the phone from Shaggy.

"Hey give it back we want to order some pizza" said Shaggy.

"No, I want to see what clothes they have" said Daphne curling up in a corner.

"Pizza first!"

"Clothes!"

"Pizza!"

"Clothes!"

Velma climbed in the front seat and sat next to Fred to avoid getting caught-up in the impending squabble.

"My money's on Shaggy and Scooby after I 'borrowed' some of their fries, the hunger will give them the edge" said Velma.

"Dunno there, Daphne's on a clothes hunt so it's not a done deal."

It was now late in the evening and Velma was trying to settle in for the night. Having to wolf down her food to keep it from Shaggy and Scooby was proving to have been a bad idea. She'd just spent some time chatting on the phone and was now lying in bed listening to the local radio station trying to fall asleep.

_Coming up with news on the hour more reports of giant moths seen over Coolsville_.

Just then her phone rang.

"Hi Gustav, you called to read me a bed-time story again?"

"Huh? What?"

"Sorry Freddie, I'm, I was just thinking about, emm, someone else."

"Vel, turn the TV on to the local news" she could tell Fred was excited about something.

"I don't have a TV remember, the pictures are better on the radio."

"Oh yeah, I'll record it and bring a copy over."

"Thanks, but what is 'it'?"

"Film footage of a giant moth seen near that hat store which was hit yesterday."

"So much for an early night, come on over Freddie I'll get the coffee going."

There were two things about Velma that the gang agreed on; firstly she was a bit eccentric; secondly she had the best sofa. It was a corner unit with large matching footstalls. When placed next to the sofa they transformed it into something the size of a double bed. It was so popular with the gang that Velma was saving up for another one, so she could use it. Fred and Velma were sitting on this with their legs outstretched, Velma with a wireless keyboard and track-pad on her lap. In front of them were a couple of large flat-panel monitors.

"It could still be a small moth up close mixed in with regular footage" said Fred

"Well we can test that by analysing and comparing the properties of various parts of the image with each other. Let's start with a statistical analysis of the noise then move onto look at JPEG artefacts" said Velma. After a bit of work they had determined that the image was not a composite of any kind.

"Well if it is a fake it's a very good fake" said Fred.

"Yes, so now we need to think about it being a model of some kind" Fred tried to follow the flurry of menus and mouse clicks that appeared on the screen as he spoke.

"Good plan Fred, this will just show the differences between all the frames of a two second segment, wires should stay in the same place" the progress bar began to crawl across the screen.

Fred yawned and lay down on the sofa "how long is this going to take?" his hand rubbed Velma's back.

"Just a minute or so" yawned Velma as she stretched her arms then lay down next to him.

Velma lived at a place of mutual inconvenience for the whole gang so they tended to meet at her place before heading off together. The next morning Daphne arrived at Velma's and was surprised to find the Mystery Machine there already so she checked her watch fearing she was late. Her eyebrows rose in surprise as she was early, Fred was usually the last to arrive as he didn't like hanging around. Her eyebrows rose even more when she noticed the ground underneath the van was dry, yet it had not long finished raining. This could only mean one thing. Velma half opened her eyes at the sound of the doorbell and wondered who could be calling at this time of night. Daphne tried the door and concluded that Velma must be up as the door wasn't fully locked; she used her key and breezed in to find Velma half sitting up on the sofa and looking quite groggy, Fred was asleep next to her.

"Say one word Daph and you'll be wearing bagels" muttered Velma as she saw Daphne's face. Daphne's eyes travelled to the giant computer monitor, frozen on it was a picture of a moth. Next to the sofa were two portable whiteboards on which were written various equations, diagrams and tables. Her suspicions were correct; Fred and Velma had had one of their all-night brainstorming sessions.

"We were working on some file footage of the moth" said Velma as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes then gave up and lay back down again.

"And?"

"I don't know, we fell asleep while Annie was processing the data" Annie or Annie Mac to give her full name, was the name of Velma's 'big' computer.

"Well I'll get breakfast for you both while you finish what you were doing."

"Intravenous caffeine please" muttered Fred.

"Same for me Daph" said Velma already half asleep.

"What a pair" she smiled to herself as she headed for the kitchen.

"Hey Vel, we should have more sleepovers where Daphne makes breakfast" said Fred.

"I heard that" said Daphne from the kitchen.

"Shhh Fred, Shaggy and Scooby will hear" said Velma stretching.

As if by magic Shaggy and Scooby arrived just as breakfast was ready. For some reason Shaggy's pockets were bulging. Velma finished off the analysis while they ate.

"Well do you want the long or short answer" said Velma.

"Short one please" said Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby, she gave a resigned sigh.

"You can tell me the long answer later" whispered Fred and she immediately perked up.

_That's our Fred_ thought Shaggy, _always ready to take one for the team._

"The image is not a composite, and it doesn't appear to be a model hung up by wires but there is this suspicious area under its tail and at the sides which looks a lot like air turbulence judging by the reference images I called up. If I had to make a judgement I'd say it's probably a model."

"Just probably?" said Shaggy

"I can't rule out the turbulence coming from the flapping of its wing but I would say that's highly unlikely."

"Can't you just pretend you know and say it's a model" pleaded Shaggy.

"That's not how science works Shag, but I think you can take the mothballs out of your pocket. You can put them in my jumper wardrobe if you like, they'll be safe there."

"Like OK Velma, thanks" Shaggy got up and walked into Velma's bedroom and opened the wardrobe. Velma's jumper wardrobe held pride-of-place in her bedroom; it was made of antique oak, build like a tank and almost as heavy. Inside there was a space to hang-up her jumpers and little shelves to hold her more special jumpers, each of these had a little label under it. Shaggy opened the door just stared at what he saw "Like, it's already full of mothballs."

"I did only say probably a model" said Velma sheepishly. A few seconds later, sans mothballs, Shaggy emerged from Velma's bedroom.

"I'm sure your stuff is safe Vel, right guys ready to set off?" said Fred.

"Before we set-off we need to decide where we set-off too" said Daphne.

"Shag, check that web-site you found yesterday?" said Velma handing Shaggy the keyboard.

"Man look at this" said Shaggy.

"Multiple sources all say that the moths have been seen near the caves in Coolville Canyon Park" said Fred checking over various websites.

"Hmmmm" Velma paused and stared at the information "Something's wrong but I'm not sure what. Hang on a minute I'm going to give Annie something to do with this while we're gone, don't want to have you wasting time surfing the net now would we Annie?" Velma joked to herself as took they keyboard from Fred.

"Ri-ro, ri-ro rit's roff ro rork re ro"said Scooby as they headed out the door.

Daphne drove while Fred and Velma took a nap in the back, if she didn't let them sleep now, they'd be zombies for the rest of the day.

When they arrived at the caves the first hint that something was going on there was the rental vans parked outside, that and by the entrance there was a large running generator with cables leading into the cave.

"A clue perhaps?" said Fred as they walked towards the cave.

"Nah" Velma deadpanned as they stopped outside the entrance and peered in.


	2. A Beginners Guide to Heroics

"OK gang before we go inside safety first" said Daphne as she handed out some colour co-ordinated hard-hats.

"Like good thinking Daph" said Shaggy.

"Designed to stop you hurting your head on the rocks _and_ keep yucky cave bugs out of your hair" said Daphne and with that task done they crept inside.

It was soon clear that the cave was occupied. There were lights set up at regular points on the wall and various kinds of cable had been run along the sides of the floor.

"Suspicious, like real suspicious man" said Shaggy.

"I agree this _is_ odd, there's just no effort to conceal things in any way shape or form" agreed Velma "All the cables seem to be going towards the main cave complex."

"That's the way we go then" said Daphne.

Finally they came across what they felt had to be the nerve centre of whatever was going on here. They carefully entered a large cave, it was obviously being used as a storage area, protective suits of some kind were hung up on a rack, there were metal flight cases stacked up, canvas bags of various kinds lined up along one side along with metal poles, lights and spools of various kings of wire and cable. Rolls of duct-tape were stacked up on top of a large boulder. In one corner there was a table with a few collapsible chairs in from of it, on the table were laptops while next to it was a large rack of electronic equipment. Even better, from Shaggy and Scooby's point of view, there was a working refrigerator, with the smell of food coming from it. Aside from the way they had come in there were two further exits from the cave on the opposite side.

"Right gang time to stay together so we don't get lost" said Fred.

"What?" said Velma.

"Really?" said Shaggy

"Only kidding, let's split up and look around."

Fred and Daphne went to check the computers, Shaggy and Scooby the refrigerator while Velma followed some cables and wandered into a deeper part of the cave.

Before any of them could make much progress they heard some noise, it was footsteps, heading their way.

"Someone's coming, like hide" whispered Shaggy.

Shaggy and Scooby grabbed a foil wrapped package out of the fridge then ducked behind some flight cases, Fred and Daphne hid behind a large boulder. A figure entered the cave, Fred silently moved in front of Daphne. The figure didn't see them; they picked up some poles and a spool of wire then left whistling a cheery, if out-of-tune, tune.

"Just what we don't need during a giant moth attack, tone-deaf cheery people acting suspiciously" muttered Fred.

Shaggy paused and thought about what he'd seen Fred just do.

"Scoob do you think like, I'm, well, y'know lacking in some way?"

"Rant a rist?" Scooby chuckled.

"No seriously Scooby I mean there's Fred moving to protect Daphne whereas what do I do to protect Velma?"

"Rasses."  
>"Her glasses, yeah I suppose you're right, carrying her spare pair is important but I'm not sure if I should do more, y'know 'manly stuff.'"<p>

"Ranly rufr? Relma rokay ron rher rown rost rof rhe rime" Shaggy nodded, Scooby had a point, whereas Daphne could attract peril like a magnet Velma could boldly stride into the crooks hideout and get away with it, most of the time.

"I suppose you're right, nothing much happens to Velma besides losing her glasses but I just wonder if I should do more. I guess she'd appreciate it, I know Daphne does when Fred…" his words were interrupted by a high-pitched shriek.

"Don't you think its bit early for that Daph" said Fred quietly.

"It's not me Freddie" said Daphne, clearly not amused at the implication "it's, it's, jeepers that was Velma!"

Shaggy brightened; this was his chance to practice his new-found generic manly stuff skills with Velma. The cry had come from a deeper cave so he ran to her side. When he got there she was wide eyed and breathless.

"What's wrong Velma, don't worry you're here to protect me, I mean I'm here to protect you" He puffed out his chest and looked around for the source of danger.

"It's it's it's" said Velma, he held her shoulders it looked like she was going to faint at any moment.

"It's?" he encouraged.

"Day, Day, Day."

"Like Wednesday Velma" said Shaggy trying to be helpful, Velma slowly shook her head.

"Day, Day, Day, David."

Daphne and Fred appeared just as Velma screamed again, she also looked ready to swoon but Shaggy managed to catch her before she fell. Fred and Daphne stared in astonishment; they'd never see her behave this way before. Velma's eyes grew wide; they turned around to see a figure loom out of the shadows.

"My apologies for intruding but is she alright?" the voice spoke in calm, gentle tones of a well-educated English gentleman. The man was dressed for caving; he had silver-grey hair and was obviously in his sixties.

"Who are you?" said Shaggy ready to confront this source of Velma's whatever state she was in at the moment.

"He's Sir David Hattenborough the world famous wildlife documentary maker and naturalist" whispered Velma in awe.

"Yes, we're filming a segment for a TV series called 'Life in Caves' a series all about cave dwelling creatures. Whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?"

The gang introduced themselves; we'll all but one of them that is.

"Name, oh yes I have a name, its emmm, wait I can remember this one" Velma suddenly became all flustered.

"Dinkley, her name is…" began Daphne.

"Ah yes, that would make you Velma then, Harold and Marilyn Dinkley's daughter?"

"Yes" said Velma barely able to breathe "How do you?"

"Well I've heard about you through a mutual friend, I was at an Oceanography conference and she mentioned you and the work you've done with your parents. I must say you fit the description down to a tee."

"He's heard about me" Velma whispered going rigid with shock as a huge grin spread over her face, she slowly keeled over still rigid, Shaggy and Fred managed to catch her before she hit the ground.

"Well we're about to break from filming so how about…" he checked in the fridge "hmm, my food seems to have disappeared, how about I buy you all some lunch" said Sir David.

Shaggy and Scooby grinned and slowly topped over just like Velma.

"Not again" muttered Fred "how are we going to get all three of them out?"

"If I may make a suggestion" said Sir David after a moment's thought.

Three figures exited the cave pushing hand carts; Velma was strapped to one, she was still frozen in the same position, her grin threatening to cause the top of her head to fall off. She was being pushed by Sir David; Daphne was pushing Shaggy while Fred was pushing Scooby.

"That was an excellent idea of yours to use these carts Sir David" said Daphne

"Why thank you Miss Blake" said Sir David with a smile

"You, you can call me Daphne" Daphne went all fluttery inside, she added him to her mental 'silver fox' collection alongside Harrison Ford, George Clooney and Sean Connery.

"Well Daphne these things happen from time to time, my film crew and I have been all over the world for decades and we have learnt to be prepared for any eventuality."

It was a short walk to the park's restaurant/gift shop, when they arrived Fred and Daphne dumped the contents of their carts on the floor while Sir David undid Velma's waist belt and offered her his hand as she stepped off the cart though Daphne wasn't convinced she was touching the ground.

"He pushed me in a handcart then offered me his hand, it doesn't get any better than this" sighed Velma dreamily; Daphne gave her a pained look and nudged her into motion.

As they ate their food the gang described the recent moth events, from the outset Sir David was sceptical that it was real moths involved.

"But like why not?" asked Shaggy.

"Well to start with moths do not eat clothes, their larvae do. People see moths, find holes then incorrectly assume that one has directly caused the other. Clothes moths do not eat clothes."

"Those would be from the Tineola genus" blurted out Velma obviously eager to please and more than a little star struck.

"That's correct Velma" said Sir David, only Scooby could hear Velma's high-pitched squeal of delight. Daphne could tell she was again on the verge of passing out, all very un-Dinkley-like behaviour.

"But man we saw this moth flying outside of the window when we were in a diner; it just hung there in the air..."

"Ah well that confirms that the moth theory is a hoax" said Sir David

"But we saw something, like the eyewitnesses on the website, the lady who ran into the diner said…" Shaggy complained.

"Well respectfully they were wrong and she was wrong, the moths do not feed on clothes their larvae do, so unless she was attacked by their larvae then she is very much mistaken. Or isn't all that good at biology."

"What do you mean?" asked Daphne.

"Aside from the problems of scaling up the wings for flying, the insect respiratory system places an upper bound on the size of its body. We have had giant insects on the plant in the past but they now only exist in the fossil record."

"Yes during the Palaeozoic era oxygen levels were much higher than today which enabled the insects to grow much larger. I should have realised but I was scared" said Velma.

"Well that is understandable. I would imagine the whole scene was designed to elicit a sense of fear in the observers and hence distract them from what would otherwise be obvious" replied Sir David.

"Oh I wasn't worried for me, but for Danny."

"Danny?"

"Danny, my sweater, he's one of my favourite ones, I was wearing him at the time, he's an orange turtleneck."

"Like all her other sweaters are orange turtlenecks, she even gives names to some of them" whispered Shaggy to Sir David.

"She has turtleneck dependency syndrome" added Daphne, David just nodded but wisely chose to make no comment.

"Danny's just so orange and turtlenecky, much more so than the others" Velma began to ramble.

"And helps keep the neck warm. I do understand I've worn similar jumpers when I have been in cold and windy places" said Sir David.

"Oh yes when you were filming seabirds on the islands off Scotland, that was one of my favourite episodes, and not just for the sweater" whispered Velma from somewhere in turtleneck dreamland.

"Well as Velma isn't available at the moment would you care to join us Sir David?" asked Daphne

"Well that's awfully kind of you but we have a tight filming schedule to stick too still thank you all the same. We're trying to get some shots of an acid-secreting slime-worm which lives in these caves."

With that they parted company. Sir David gave Velma his email address.

"It's been a dream come true meeting you" said Velma

"Well the pleasure was all mine Miss Dinkley" said Sir David "I don't think you need any help from me as you are clearly more than up to the task of solving this case" with that he shook her warmly by the hand. Sir David headed back to the caves while the gang headed to the Mystery Machine, a minute later they returned to collect Velma. Between them they carried her along; she was like a statue still staring at her hand.

"She should come with carrying handles" muttered Daphne.

On the way back home they were listing to the local radio station; Shaggy's favourite phone-in quiz 'Name that Snack Packet' was on due on. They caught the tail-end of a phone-in, they listened in silence as caller after caller reported seeing giant moths.

"Mass hysteria" said Velma.

They listened to the next caller in silence; they claimed that her family's clothes were beginning to slowly dissolve after being washed. Another caller said the same, then the presented concurred with them.

"Sounds like we've got some work to do when we get back" said Fred.

"You said it. I've an idea, Fred you can deal with the paperwork, Velma you get the lab ready and Shag, Scooby and me can hunt through the affected stores for clues" said Daphne.

"Good idea Daph" said Velma.

"Just clues?" asked Shaggy.

"Only clues, no moths, I promise" replied Daphne as Velma discreetly passed her a box of Scooby Snacks.

"Well I suppose we can give this a go Scoob" said Shaggy.

Daphne dropped Fred and Velma back at Mystery Inc HQ then headed out clue hunting. There was a mountain of paperwork to do and the lab needed to be tidied up from their last mystery. Whilst Fred hated paperwork only he had the patience to do it properly and Velma was just too fussy to let anyone else tidy-up her lab complaining that she just couldn't find things if someone else did the work.

"Well it is either a hoax or we are about to make a big discovery in biology, literally" said Velma as she and Fred walked into Mystery Inc HQ.

"Yeah, well big bugs or not I've got piles of paperwork to do and you've got to get the lab ready."

"Rather you than me Fred, I hope it's going to be worth their time grubbing around those empty stores. Be nice to Daph when they get back, some of those stores were her favourite ones."  
>"Hmmm" Fred stopped in his tracks and stroked his chin "Now you say that that is an interesting point. All those stores are fancy ones, even the kid's clothes stores, all fancy and expensive. Are they being targeted or are the cheaper ones being deliberately missed."<p>

"Another line of enquiry, nice one Fred we need to ourselves from falling in a rut. Speaking of ruts…"

"Yeah, paperwork here I come."

Shaggy and Daphne walked out of the store carrying a box. Scooby trotted out of another carrying s bag in his mouth.

"Same again Scoob?"asked Shaggy.

"Reah, rame ras rhe rothers, rand rou?"

"Same again" said Daphne. "Whatever it is."

"Time to fire up the Dinkley" said Shaggy getting out his phone. Daphne held up one of the devices they had found so Shaggy could describe it..

A car stopped opposite where they were standing, the rear window rolled and a camera lens emerged. A few seconds later the car pulled away.

The lab was finally ready and Velma was passing the time gently spinning on her office chair humming quietly to herself. Soon Scooby and Shaggy came in carrying the eagerly awaited box of potential clues, Velma looked up and made her chair spin faster, her white lab-coat flapped about as she spun. Every time she faced Shaggy she said a word.

"Could… you… put… it… over… there… please."

Shaggy put the box down on the bench then held on, he was getting giddy watching Velma spin round. He didn't notice her and Scooby wink at each other.

"Like got the stuff they found at the stores, man will you stop spinning please?"

"I have, everything is spinning around me" she replied spinning her chair faster,

"Like, err, are you sure?" Shaggy gripped the bench tighter just to be on the safe side.

"Relp, Raggy relp, rhe ree rorces" Shaggy looked round to see Scooby flattened against the wall "Rhe rorld is rinning roo rast rake rit rop."

"But, like I'm OK" Shaggy looked down at himself, then around the room.

"You must be in a different co-ordinate system. Shaggy, you have super powers! I'm fine for the moment you go save Scooby."

"Reeeeee! Rust rike ra ride rin rhe run rare."

Shaggy let go of the bench "Man I do have super powers, I'll save you Scoob" with that he began to drag himself in Scooby's direction.

"What are you up too?" said Daphne standing in the doorway, carrying mugs of coffee on a tray, trying to work on what was going on.

"Like hold on Daph, I'll get to you. I just need to save Scoob."

"From what?"

"The world's started spinning around Velma. Just keep hold Daph, I'll get to you. Don't worry I've got super powers!" Daphne just sighed and briefly closed her eyes.

"Shaggy. They're playing a trick on you" said Daphne.

"What? They are?" Velma brought her chair to an abrupt halt while Scooby walked away from the wall.

"Oh man I can't believe I fell for that one again" muttered Shaggy, Velma got out of her chair to high-five Scooby but tumbled to the ground after a few uncertain steps.

"I told you the world was spinning around me" said Velma from the floor.


	3. A good night, but not so good a morning

The world had finally decided to stay still long enough for Velma to investigate the devices found in the stores. Each was about the size of a paperback book and painted matt-black. Inside about half the space was take up with a battery-pack then there was a circuit board with drove something. Frustratingly the wires from the board entered a block of opaque resin though the part of the block which faced the outside world was protected by a translucent plastic window. Velma quickly concluded that the box emitted something, but that was the easy part. Each of the circuit boards and batteries had signs of scoring and damage, as it they had shorted out.

"Self destruct?" said Fred.

"Possibly, it's deep fried the electrics on all the boards but not always in the same place. I think there's enough left to enable me to rebuild a device, but it will take some time."

"So we'll come back in an hour?" asked Shaggy.

Velma looked at the electronics graveyard in front of her "Make that two or three" with that Velma switched on her illuminated magnifying lens then reached for a notebook and pen. Daphne collected some electronics parts catalogues and placed them on the bench next to Velma, Fred brought in an large insulated mug full of coffee as Shaggy and Scooby brought in a plate full of fruit and some cookies. While Velma studied the electronics the rest of the gang looked at the other evidence.

It was several hours later, Velma sat back and whispered "Dinkley you've just found diddly" she looked at the rest of the gang "sorry guys, I can't seem to get this to work" Velma sighed and went back to looking at the circuit diagram she had produced.

"I'm sure it transmits something between infrared and ultraviolet, but what? You could probably even get a tiny magnetron in there and make microwaves. Suppose I'll have to try to dissolve away the resin or should I use a small power tool?" she muttered to no-one in particular.

"Hey don't worry Vel, perhaps these are just a red-herring" said Fred as he massaged her shoulders, her shoulders were tense and muscles knotted from being hunched over for so long.

"Perhaps they only work in conjunction with something else" said Daphne.

"But there's nothing to indicate that they are remotely triggered unless there's a timer of some kind in that small chip on the board" Velma felt her muscles slowly began to unravel. Velma knew she was smart, but she also knew that she was smarter when the rest of the gang were there, bouncing ideas off each other.

"Like Scooby do you smell something burning?"

"Rire! Rire!" yelped Scooby as a spot on the notice board began to smoulder then a little flicker of flame appeared.

Shaggy grabbed a CO2 extinguisher and doused the tiny inferno.

"Jinkies guys what's happening?" said Velma, she got up and stood in front of the notice board.

"Like the notice board just started to burn" said Shaggy pointing at the small charred spot.

"That's odd" Velma stared at the spot trying to work out what could have caused the fire; she shrieked in surprise when Shaggy discharged the extinguisher on her back. The next second Fred dragged her aside, pulled her lab coat off and started to roll her on the floor while Shaggy occasionally squirted her with the fire extinguisher.

"What are you two doing?" she demanded angrily as she swatted them away.

"Like you were on fire" said Shaggy.

"Remember, stop, drop and roll Velma" said Fred as he knelt next to her.

"Oh, for a moment I thought Daphne had stuck bagels on me."

"You wish look at this" said Daphne holding up Velma's lab-coat and pointing to a small charred area in the middle of her back. They all stared at the box.

"Is it the box that's doing that?" said Daphne.

"There's only one way to find out" said Velma and she gingery placed her had in front of the box; she held it there for a few seconds then pulled it away. She powered down the box then immediately walked to a nearby sink muttering under her breath and ran her hand under cold water.

"Yep it's the box alright, lets double check, Daph can you get some paper from the printer and Fred could you get some retort stands and clamps from the equipment cupboard."

Five minutes later they had set-up the retort stands and clamps, they were set-up in a line between the box and the notice board, Paper was held in place by the clamps to block the path. The gang watched in silence as a small hole was burnt through each sheet until the notice board began to smoulder again.

"It emits infrared radiation, a common-a-garden heat laser" said Velma as she switched off the box and looked at the gang, she couldn't stop grinning and neither could they.

"You were right Daph, these do must with something else; I'd guess some kind of heat sensor as there was no fire at any of the stores" said Velma.

"Like a fire detector?" suggested Fred.

"That's it!" exclaimed Velma hugging him round the waist "We need to check out the stores again and their maintenance records."

A quick visit to one of the stores and Velma had a smoke detector from the room in which one of the boxes had been found. Velma removed the cover and Velma immediately got excited, there was a lot more inside that just a smoke detector. Reminding herself to be patient she carefully studied what was there. While this was going on Shaggy got a phone call and dashed off to his parent's home. He returned an hour later looking like he'd received a lifetime of Christmas presents.

"Let's see, we have a transparent window, a sensor, a small bit or circuitry all leading to the smoke detector's alarm circuit."

Velma quickly disassembled the smoke detector and read off the sensor part number which Shaggy looked-up online. IR laser would be right in the sensors sweet spot. Daphne clapped her hands together in excitement "It's all coming together."

Velma smiled to herself, she was feeling the same sense of excitement, they were closing in on the 'how' of the mystery; next they needed to deal with the why. Velma thought again about the box, rather than some fancy self-destruct system perhaps the box had just shorted out when the fire system came on, She fely on the inside of the box and frowned.

"Hmmmm icky" said Velma rubbing her thumb and forefinger together.

"Icky?" said Shaggy.

"Yup icky, that's the technical term for it" said Velma as she collected some of the residue and put it in a sterile container. "Right I'm going to run this over to Coolsville Analytics for them to analyse, if I get there before they close we'll have the results tomorrow. I'm off home after that so I'll see you all tomorrow" with that Velma left and dashed for her car.

"Like don't forget we're picking you up tomorrow, it's just been delivered. Man it's better than we expected" called Shaggy.

"Oh yeah, how could I forget" Velma bit her bottom lip; she'd managed to forget about that.

"Like this will make your mind up for sure."

"I bet it will" said Velma making a mental note to check up on her life and health insurance cover before tomorrow,

The rest of the gang were getting ready to leave when they heard the Mystery Machine's car alarm. They ran outside just as something huge flapped overhead and vanished into the evening sky, the van was still moving slightly, whatever it was had just been on the roof. Climbing up they saw what appeared to be claw marks along either side of the van, the top was buckled and dented as if something heavy had landed on top of it. There were some odd scorch marks on the roof which were still hot to the touch.

Fred was in shock "Who could be so cruel, I mean the Mystery Machine is more than just a van."

"Think things still coming together now?" asked Shaggy, Daphne shook her head.

"Ro ray" agreed Scooby.

Velma was lying in her bath, usually she just had a shower before bed but as she was still trying to ease out the knots in her muscles she was treating herself to a long soak in a hot bath, it was a chance to use the relaxing bath oil Gustav had given her as a gift before he'd gone to Seattle on business. She was due to have a web-chat with him soon, she hadn't told Daphne much, she knew Daphne loved playing 'are they, aren't they' guessing games and teasing out little bits of information so saw no reason to disappoint her. The radio had just finished playing a medley of love songs, some of them her favourite ones, so Velma was now is a suitably 'warm and fuzzy' mood ready for her web-chat. There was a news update that nearly ruined the mood.

Police were called today to several Laundromats to help control angry customers. It seems the confrontation was due to peoples clothes going missing, It is reported that all that was found at the end of the wash cycle was just buttons and zips in the drum...

On hearing this Velma immediately got out of the bath and headed to her sweater wardrobe. She gathered up Danny and the other special sweaters and clasped them tightly to her bosom.

"Don't any of you worry I won't let anything happen to any of you" she returned each to their named part of the shelves "You can all stay safe in here till we've sorted out this mystery I'll use the cable-knits I wear when I help out in my folk's garden, but I'll be thinking of you all" with that she closed and locked the wardrobe door.

Once that was done she threw on her dressing gown then switched on the laptop in her bedroom. This was her sanctuary; her most precious things were here, sweaters, select books, memorabilia from the gang's travels and photo-albums. Within minutes her other most precious thing, well person, was there, virtually. She sighed a happy sigh; her warm fuzzy feeling was back.

Well that's the end of 'Wake Up Coolsville' so it's over to the news-desk for the 9am news...

Velma almost jumped out of bed at the sound of the radio, unbelievably she'd overslept, those bath oils sure do work she thought to herself. Still she felt full of energy and almost up to Shaggy giving her a lift that morning. It had sounded a good idea at the time, Shaggy was excited about getting a custom motorbike and side-car and she was thinking, a tiny bit, about replacing her car with a motorbike and she found herself agreeing to him giving her a lift. Having dressed she was eating breakfast and looked out of the window to see if there was any sign of the easy-riding duo, there was none but her car seemed to be covered with grey hair. A minute later she was outside looking at her car, it appeared to be covered in some kind of giant spider-web.

"What on earth did this?" Velma looked up at the sound of an approaching motorbike. She turned to watch Shaggy and Scooby arrive, they came round the corner on an impressive sounding green and chrome affair. The front forks appeared to be modelled on chop-sticks while the wheel seemed to have a cutlery theme. Her appreciation of the bike was rudely interrupted when she was hit hard in the back and knocked to the ground. She rolled onto her back to find out what had happened and found herself face-to-face with a moth whose body was bigger than she was. Before she knew what was happening two pairs of legs took hold of her and it flapped into the sky.


	4. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Waffles

Usually in books or films when the heroine is captured by a giant creature of some kind she would be whisked away to its lair where, after being suitably incarcerated, she would passively await her fate. If lucky this would be a rescue by the dashing hero sometimes even with the option of swooning into the arms of said hero; if she wasn't then it was on to be a sacrifice or menu item. Whilst not averse to being rescued by a hero, dashing or otherwise, Velma have any time for this passive/swooning nonsense so preferred to sort things out personally before she found herself in a situation where such antics were necessary hence she struggled like a madman to get free.

For a few seconds Shaggy and Scooby stared in disbelief at what they saw; they shook themselves free of their surprise and raced off after the moth. They could see Velma fighting for all she was worth; this was obviously causing the moth problems in flying as it wasn't gaining any altitude which was good as Velma managed to kick herself free, she clung on for a few seconds and dropped when the moth flew over some soft ground. Before the moth could come about Velma had jumped on the motorbike behind Shaggy, Scooby passed her a helmet and plugged it in to the bike's intercom system as Shaggy rode away as fast as he could. Scooby kept watch from behind, Velma kept watch ahead and both of them hoped Shaggy was watching the road.

"Ruck!" cried Scooby; they cringed down as the moth flew over them from behind. It raced ahead of them and wheeled about, coming in for a head-on attack. Velma sat up to see what was happening the moth was almost upon them.

"Duck!" she shouted, but Shaggy and Scooby were already ducked.

Its front pair of legs went under her arms, the rest of the legs grabbed Velma as she was lifted up as the moth climbed into the sky. Somehow she managed to keep hold of Shaggy; he was lifted up, holding on to the handlebars with all his strength. They hung like this for a few seconds till Velma lost her grip and Shaggy fell back down on the seat.

"Like Scoob you drive for a minute" said Shaggy in a high-pitched voice.

Scooby took over while Shaggy recovered. He looked around to see what was happening, the intercom cable from Velma's helmet was acting like a tether and they were towing the moth and Velma. She was being held face first against the moth's belly, with her feet in the direction of travel. After a bit of effort she managed to kick her leg free, her back arched downwards causing her to cry out in pain. She thrashed around, in part to stop her legs being grabbed again by the moth and in part to turn herself around to ease the pain in her back. She was successful in both counts, her legs now dangled out of reach of the moth's legs; the downside was that she could now see how high off the ground they were.

"Now Scoob!" yelled Shaggy, he resumed riding the bike while Scooby began to climb on top of him "Like, nearly there Velma!" she looked down to see Scooby, standing on Shaggy's shoulders, reaching out for her. She dared not think how fast they were going.

"Rotcha!" Scooby stretched out and grabbed hold of her ankles "ret ro!"

"Jinkies!" yelled Velma as she left go, seconds later both she and Scooby were deposited head-first in the side-car. They soon sorted themselves out and Velma resumes her place behind Shaggy, but this time she remained ducked.

For the next ten minutes they weaved around the roads trying to fool the moth, they would succeed for a moment but all it had to do was gain some height for them to come into view again. Despite all Shaggy's efforts they were unable to shake the moth off their tail and decided to head for HQ and take cover there.

"We just can't lose it, I'm heading for HQ and the nice basement" said Shaggy.

"Good idea Shag. Just in case I've an idea, try to keep it away from us, Scoob grab that tool-kit and follow me" said Velma, seconds later she jumped into the side car. Shaggy focused on keeping the moth away from them as Velma and Scooby worked on whatever they were doing. The soda can dispenser… bread maker… chocolate fountain… mini-oven… refrigerator… all these special adaptations to the bike and they hadn't even had a chance to try them more than once or twice on the way to Velma's and now it was potentially all being torn up. He glanced behind, Scooby was hanging onto Velma's waist, it looked like she was re-routing part of the bike's exhaust, he had designed that part of the bike himself. _I hope she doesn't damage __my__exhaust powered __waffle iron_he thought.

"Right I've modified the exhaust to power an anti-aircraft soda-can launcher. There are a couple of other things I'm finishing off but we need this first."

"Rall ret Relma" Scooby got into position behind the cannon and readied his sights.

"So Scooby diet or regular?" Velma held up a pair of cans.

"Diet Scoob we may need the energy later."

"Rokay, rets rock and road" said Scooby as Velma fed six cans into the magazine and returned to finish off the other devices.

The moth came in again, Scooby fired two rounds, they went wide but the moth broke of its run.

"Nice one Scoob" said Shaggy.

"I've nearly finished this sachet dispenser tracer-round device. When it fires the sachet is punctured and will leave a trail of either ketchup or mustard to help your aim" said Velma.

While Scooby wasn't able to hit the moth he did force it to keep its distance. But that would only last for as long as they had ammunition, and they were rapidly running out of that.

"Rit's roming rin roo rast!" said Scooby as another round missed the moth. They were now down to their last dozen cans of regular soda.

"Hang on Scooby I'll adjust the sights" Velma tinkered with the devices targeting sights "there, just remember to lead your target and don't forget to use the ketchup and mustard sachet dispensers as tracer rounds. If it gets too close I'll use theis waffle-batter cannon I've just completed."

"Not the waffle batter!" wailed Shaggy, running on instinct he turned into the next road.

"No Shaggy not this road."

"Roh ro, rot ro turn ravenue.".

"Zoinks, my bad."

"Maybe not" said Velma quietly as she studied their situation carefully.

They found themselves heading down what was locally known as 'no turn' avenue; a long straight road with tall buildings running along either side, power and telephone lines criss-crossed the street. It was the quickest way to HQ but when being attacked by a giant moth was it also the best?

"We can't move much" said Shaggy.

"Re're roast" said Scooby.

"Toast? Like not the best time but there's bread under your seat and the toast slot is next to the transmission. Butter, jelly, peanut butter and chocolate spread are all in the 'fridge."

"Wait guys it may not be that bad, the moth is just as stuck as we are. It can only come at us from behind" said Velma. She reloaded the magazine as the moth closed in on them again.

Stay on target, stay on target" muttered Velma, Scooby was getting better with his aim, his last two shots had been glancing blows, it had slowed, but not stopped the moth, She reloaded the cannon with the last of the soda cans.

"Use the waffle batter, Velma" whispered Shaggy. The moth filled each wing mirror, inasmuch as he could read emotion in the face of an insect, he could tell it was angry.

"Rhe's ritched roff rher rageting romputer" said Scooby.

"Wait until you see the hairs on its antennae" said Velma.

"Ruh?"

The moth was now almost on top of them, the closest pair of arms began to reach out for Velma.

"Fire main guns!" cried Velma, at that Scooby let fly with the last of the soda cans and Velma opened fire with the waffle-batter cannon.

Waffle batter covered its head and antennae, all the cans hit home, two went through its left wing. It limped into the sky and flapped away as best it could. Finally they were nearing the end of the road, within minutes they would be at HQ and safety.

MI HQ was based in two adjoining units in a small commercial/industrial estate on the outskirts of town. One unit held their workshop, garage and main labs the other was more office like and contained Velma's evidence examination and an electronics lab; it also contained the kitchen and rest/sleeping area for the times when they pulled an all-nighter.

"They're here Freddie" said Daphne on hearing a motorbike come into the car park.

"They're late, guess they went on a tour, let's go see" as they headed out to the car-park.

"Sweet ride Shag" said Fred as the bike pulled up outside HQ.

"Sticky ride more like it, why is it covered in waffle-batter?" said Daphne.

"Guys?" Fred could see they were all wide-eyed, none of them had moved.

"M, m, m, m" stammered Velma.

"Like, like giant, like giant."

"Rying, rying rat rus, right rat rus."

"Just spit it out will you" said Fred and Daphne.

"Giant moth attack!"

"Like it tried to take Velma but we all fought back."

"Inside quickly you lot. Get cleaned up then you can tell us what happened" said Daphne. Fred opened the shutter door so Shaggy could drive the bike into their workshop.

Daphne was a master at debriefing, she unlocked all the food cupboards for Shaggy and Scooby while she had Fred listen to Velma explain how she had constructed the weapons.

"Say if you add a heater coil to the muzzle you could fire cooked waffles" said Fred as he and Velma walked inside.

"I think I might just do that. I can't see either of them complaining."

After that Fred washed down the bike as Shaggy, Scooby and Velma described what had happened to them.

By the time this was all done the results from the lab were arrived. Velma had already arranged further tests on samples from the Laundromat, these were being fast-tracked and she was hope for the results that afternoon. Velma handed Fred the results and he stared at them blankly

"So what does all this mean?" asked Fred "I did mechanics and trapology at college not chemistry."

"It means that there was a lot more than water in the store's fire suppression system, not sure what but it's not in the local water supply, the lab checked already."

"OK, I suggest we split up and look for some more clues, Velma you go to the library archives and look up some of the chemistry you've found, I'll check the affected stores for further clues and see who looks after their fire alarms. Daph you can check the places that haven't been hit yet while Shaggy Scooby you go and check the web-sites and see if you can find a common pattern and give leads to Daph."

"Here's hoping for a quiet day" said Shaggy.

"Amen to that" said Velma.

"Want a lift to the library? The bike's clean and dry now."

"Oh alright then, but let's restock the soda cans just in case."


	5. My, what big fangs you have

The moment he had opened his mouth Shaggy knew he would regret asking Velma if she had wanted a go on the bike for the rest of his life. On the bright side his lifespan probably could be measured in minutes for the second she had taken hold of the handlebars he could tell in her eyes that something had snapped.

"This is great! Ye-hah ride 'em Dinkley!" Velma screamed as she gunned the motorbike throttle.

Shaggy and Scooby cowered in the side-car while Velma rode the bike around the car-park trailing smoke behind them as the tyre screeched in protest at what it was being asked to do. People in the neighbouring offices stared out of the windows at the scene; a few brave souls ventured out to move their cars to a safer location, Canada being considered the closest. In the street opposite an ambulance and a couple of fire engines which were just passing by had stopped to watch figuring that their services would soon be required. Shaggy and Scooby clung onto each other in terror as Velma turned a sharply corner causing the side-car wheel to momentarily leave the ground; finally she brought the bike to an abrupt halt outside HQ. Shaggy and Scooby climbed out and gratefully kissed the ground. Looking down from the offices you could see 'Velma' written in tyre marks on the car-park surface.

"I want one now and I want it in orange!" yelled Velma pulling Shaggy and Scooby up off their knees and into a big bone-crushing hug "Again! Again!"

"Thanks boys, have a quiet day!" shouted Daphne as she waved the fire engine away; they had just borrowed the Jaws of Life to pry Velma off Shaggy and Scooby.

With that all done they set off for their respective destinations. As they were heading off local radio reported more incidents of clothes dissolving while being washed, this time in people's home washing machines as well as Laundromats.

"We need to get some samples of that" said Velma as they headed to the library.

"Like OK, we can pick some up from the store on the way back to HQ" said Shaggy.

"Thanks you two; let me know the brand you've picked and I'll get some sent from out of town for comparison." Once they had deposited Velma at the library they picked up the washing powder samples then headed back to HQ to start their investigations.

While this was going on Fred visited the affected stores, as well as some that had not been affected, to speak to the owners, managers and checked through their records. Soon a pattern began to emerge; it transpired that all of the affected stores had new or recently maintained fire-suppression systems with the work being done by the same company K&K Business Support. He also found one store where they hadn't lost all their stock, a small office had been used as a temporary store, a brief inspection revealed that it didn't have a fire suppression system. He then had an urgent message from Shaggy and Scooby, cookie levels were dangerously low back at HQ.

From the safety of the basement Shaggy and Scooby hit the phones and the internet as they looked into the background of the moth sightings and the website collating the information. They had arranged to visit the local radio station to talk to the DJ who has received the calls on his phone-in show to get his view on what was happening. They put in a request to the police department to see if any of the officers on patrol at night had seen anything. Then they hit a brick wall, the online clothes store which advertised on the giant moths' site was located in Coosville but they weren't interested in helping the investigation. A quick hunt on-line showed that aside from a warehouse there was also a manufacturing unit attached. Then they had an idea, Daphne could have a look so they gave her a quick call, after that they turned their attention to the other advertiser on the giant moths site, the pizza take-away – Konsumption Kaos Pizza's. Samples were needed for analysis so an urgent order was placed. While they were waiting they looked into owner of the domains. Even they had to raise their eyebrows when the same name came back for the giant moths' site and the two advertisers: k+k webworld.

Daphne was having a wonderful time; she was window shopping and being paid to do so. So far nothing much had turned up aside from that the most of the unaffected stores did not cater to the well-heeled part of the market. Daphne knew that this could be a blind alley but she also knew that clues appeared in the strangest of places. As she went she made a list of stores that could be affected next. All this was interrupted by the call from Shaggy. Ten minutes later she was outside the building; it was an even more unexciting on the outside than their HQ, a nondescript glass and concrete affair. The name above the door said 2K Fashion. She went inside and almost immediately she was out again and had the distinct impression that if she tried that again she'd end up landing on her backside rather than her feet. She walked out of site and thought for a while _a-ha!_ She thought and pulled out her phone.

Velma was in the basement of the library in the 'archived archives' section surrounded by chemical catalogues, chemistry reference books and academic journals and was consequentially in hog-heaven. She was humming quietly to herself while making copious notes occasionally walking to a shelf to replace or retrieve a book. Soon she found a direction to her investigation, she refreshed the books and journals then started filling out request forms for papers that the library didn't hold. She was so engrossed with what she was doing that she didn't notice a boiler suited figure nearby watching her every move. When Velma went to return some books the figure went up to the desk and looked at what Velma had been working on before hiding in the darkness again. Velma returned with some more journals. After a few minutes she had found the papers she was looking for.

"Hmmmm" muttered Velma, she sat back and stroked her chin "things are beginning to fall into place. I'm getting close."

"Yeah, too close" whispered a figure in the shadows who had been observing Velma for a while. The logo on the back of their boiler suit said K&K. They took out a heavy wrench from their tool belt and headed off into the dark.

Meanwhile back at HQ Shaggy and Scooby were getting down to some culinary investigation.

"Mmmm hot pepper and BBQ chicken pizza, definitely suspicious Scoob" Shaggy licked his fingers then reached for another pizza box "I wonder if that Super Supreme Meat 'n Mango melt is the clue we're looking for."

"Reah, ris rive cheese and rarlic red reeds rore rinvestigation roo."

Their diligent work was interrupted by a call from Daphne; she needed help getting in to the building. She also suggested that they should join in as they would need some exercise to work off all that pizza they had just been eating.

"Like, how did you know Daph?"

"Oh just a guess, come on guys get moving I'll meet you at the Western Mall car park."

Daphne turned around at the roar of a motorbike engine, Shaggy and Scooby pulled up in their motorbike next to her. Daphne climbed on board and they headed for the site. Haven driven round the site they found a secluded spot next to the site to park up and plan their next move,

"We can't just walk in and smile, tried that and nearly got thrown out."

"Like, it looks pretty locked-up to me."

"Have to watch and wait then, suppose you didn't bring any of that pizza with you?" Scooby took out a small pizza from the pizza oven integrated into the engine and passed it to Daphne.

Soon a van pulled up outside and the driver went inside, Shaggy grabbed some overalls, this could be their chance. Soon the driver appeared again and opened the back of the van; it was filled with rolls of cloth.

"It's Cleopatra time" said Daphne.

With that they crept up and removed one of the rolls of cloth. A few minutes later they returned carrying a slightly thicker and bumpier roll of cloth between them. They carried the roll inside.

"Like where do you want this man?" said Shaggy to a lady checking the rolls off on a clipboard.

"Ohh that looks heavy, be a dear and take it into the store room over there" she pointed to a set of doors in the corner of the rooms. "Could you move those other rolls as well please they're a bit too heavy for me, thanks. After that you can get a drink in the canteen if you wish" she pointed to some stairs "It's curry day today, there might be some left if you…" Shaggy and Scooby were a blur as they moved the rolls into storeroom then rushed up the stairs to the canteen "…hurry."

All the rolls of cloth had been carefully placed flat on the shelves bar one which was resting against the wall. Two eyeholes appeared in the roll and it hopped away into a quieter part of the room. A few minutes later Daphne slowly and quietly opened the storeroom door and looked around, she had unrolled herself and tidied away as best she could. Satisfied that there was nobody about she crept out of the room and began her investigations. Carefully she checked around the building, there was a warehouse and shipping area, some storage rooms, general office area and a floor full of pattern cutters, sewing machines and other tools of the garment trade. Daphne found a quiet corner to think, from their trip round the building she knew that it was L shaped. So far she had explored as much of the long part of the L as she could safely do without being spotted but had yet to see any way of getting into the short part of the L. Then she remembered it looked like there may be a way in through the loading bay where they entered. She sent Shaggy and Scooby a message telling them what she was doing then set off the way she had come. Daphne suspected that the unexplored part of the building was where the computers for the on-line business were kept; garment making could be very dusty, not an environment particularly suited to efficient computing. Still that was a lot of building for not much computing.

"When your right girl, you're right" whispered Daphne, there was indeed a door which lead to the unexplored part of the building but it was protected by a keypad activated lock. Daphne studied the keypad; she could see finger marks around four of the numbers. It appeared to be a standard four digit code, she knew what the digits were but not the order that gave her twenty-four combinations to play with. She could spend a couple of minutes typing them all in but she'd probably get caught or set of an alarm, then it hit her, the numbers were the first part of the Coolsville area code. She typed them in, a green light lit up on the keypad and she went in. Once inside she sent the number to Shaggy just to be on the safe side then resumed her exploration. She quickly found a small computer room with a few servers inside which allayed some of her suspicions. Her attention was drawn to a short poorly lit corridor, at the end of which was a set of doors. When she got to the doors they were locked _no__w this is more like it_ she though.

Daphne quietly picked the lock and crept inside. It was a gloomy space; the only light came from a few grubby windows. It appeared to be a workshop of some kind; there was no sound of anyone being there so waited for her eyes to become accustomed to the gloom before looking further. So far, so dull and deserted, after waiting a few minutes she found her torch and attached it to her wrist via a strap so it would be available if needed then set off, the stress of staying hidden with the boredom of finding nothing was starting to get to her, she gave herself five minutes before she would call it all off and get out of there. _Right, there's something on that tabl__e so here go__e__s nothing. _ As soon as she got close enough she flattened herself against the wall and didn't move, the thing on the table was a giant moth. She approached gingerly, she could see that it wasn't moving, the faint smell of cooked waffle batter and the holes in the wing confirmed that this was the moth that had attacked Shaggy, Scooby and Velma that morning. There was a set of doors opposite so she moved around the outside of the room, through the door into dimly-lit room, it had a sunken section of the floor, like an empty swimming pool, with a faint mist covering its contents and another set of doors on the opposite wall either side of which was a reel of fire hose, Daphne looked around and found some stairs leading down into the sunken area. As she walked down she could see hoists coming from the ceiling and what appeared to be some machine tools in one corner.

Daphne's eyes opened wide in surprise when she got to the bottom of the steps, the floor appeared to contain a number of beach-ball sized objects. On closer inspection they were stuck to the ground and were veined and ribbed with an odd cap on the top the size of a dinner plate. She'd seen something like this before, then she remembered, caterpillar eggs, she seen something like this in class biology at school. The eggs were translucent; she knelt down to the closest egg and angled her torch to shine light through it at an angle. The silhouette of a large worm-like object could be clearly seen.

"Jeepers!" Daphne took a step back when it moved, she took another step back when the egg-case began to crack open. Something moved in the darkness near her feet, something bigger. Daphne looked around and shone her torch in the direction of the sound, there was something slithering about her feet, it brushed against her calf. She turned around and dashed for the stairs; she was almost at the top when something soft and heavy, like a squishy carpet roll hit her on the back and sent her flying across the room. As soon as she landed she pulled out her phone, at the same time a jet of sticky threads glued her arms to her side and her thighs together, the force of the jet propelling her into the wall the creature started to spray web over her and smother her from the feet up. The impact caused her to drop the phone which fell to the floor and bounced a short distance away. This wasn't a worry; all the gang had ruggedized phones. Unlike the phone Daphne wasn't all that ruggidized so collapsed to the floor stunned and winded, before she had been able to recover the creature was next to her, wrapping her tightly in a cocoon. She came to her senses and managed to kick the creature aside; she then struggled to her feet and started to hop towards her phone, their phones also came with voice recognition.

"Dial Shaggy!" she called out just before the creature sprayed the sticky web over her face rendering her mute. The creature clipped her with its tail, spinning her around, enabling it to covering her with more of the sticky web. Daphne slumped to the floor with her head a few inches away from her phone. The larvae began to spray web on the wall while Daphne concentrated on getting as close to the phone as possible.

Shaggy and Scooby were in the cafeteria checking for similarities between the pizza they had just consumed and the food here when Shaggy's phone rang; he took out the phone and looked at the caller display.

"Like Daphne's calling us she must have finished" he pressed the answer button "Hi Daph."

"Mmmmmmmmmm!"

"Daph?"

"Hummm mmmm! Hummm!" there was a slithering noise and more desperate mumphing.

"Sounds rike rhe reeds relp. Rhat's rong, Rhaggy, rhats rong?"

"Like don't panic Scoob we can use the 'Daphne in Peril to Text' app on my phone to work out what she's saying. Shaggy pressed a few buttons on his phone as he spoke.

"Ro rhat rhe's raying rhen?"

"It says 'Help me, I'm being attacked and mummified by a giant worm creature.'"

"Rikes."

"Yeah, like could be dangerous Scoob. Better fortify ourselves with some more food."

They paused and reached out for some more food; another call came through a few seconds later.

"Like it says 'I'll get Velma to lock the Scooby Snacks away if you're not here in one minute.'"

"Rone rinute?"

"Uh-huh"

"Rock rhe racks raway?"

"That's what the lady says."

"Roh."

"Yeah" he and Scooby looked around whistling, Shaggy looked at his watch.

"Well time to go Scoob."

The creature picked Daphne using its tail and pressed her into the web covered part of the wall where she stuck fast. Daphne could barely make out the creature as it slithered towards her, seconds later it began to spray more of the sticky substance over her. Daphne was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe, it took all her effort to suck air in through the cocoon over her face, to make matters worse the fumes were overpowering. She was slowly suffocating; as the cocoon dried it hardened and shrunk making each breath harder than the last. Another layer of stuff covered her face and she passed out for a few seconds. Daphne was overcome by fumes and she started slipping in and out of consciousness, finally she no longer had the strength breathe properly and lapsed into unconsciousness.

The creature slithered up to her, a pair of six-inch long black fangs emerged from its head. A blood-red fluid dripped from the ends which smoked and hissed when it hit the ground. The creature reared up and readied to deliver Daphne the coup de grâce.


	6. Dunking Dinkley

A solid column of water knocked it to the ground and away from Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby advanced on the creature keeping the fire hoses trained on it, pushing it out the door. Scooby closed and barred the door with a plank of wood while Shaggy ripped the cocoon from Daphne's face, she wasn't breathing but he could feel a pulse. With all his strength he tore away the strands holding her to the wall and eased her to the ground. Scooby clawed away the cocoon around her chest while Shaggy checked her airway; Shaggy then began to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while Scooby checked her pulse and kept an eye out for the creature. They both flinched when it slammed against the door, the plank creaked and cracked but held – for now. Daphne coughed as the creature slammed against the door again, the plank began to break and splinter.

"C'mon Daph, stay with us" pleaded Shaggy as Daphne's head flopped to one side. Shaggy resumed mouth-to-mouth, Daphne coughed again and finally began to breathe for herself. Shaggy pulled out his phone and called Fred.

"Like Fred, get Velma, we've found a clue, but it found Daphne first. We're taking her to the hospital she's out cold."

The plank of wood shattered as the doors flew open, Shaggy picked up Daphne and slung her over his shoulder and ran; he hoped the cracking sound was the cocoon and not Daphne. With Scooby opening the doors for them they were soon outside, they put Daphne in the side car, Scooby leant over and tried to wake her up while Shaggy drove to the hospital as fast as he could.

Velma's investigations were interrupted by a call from Fred he was coming to pick her up from the library.

"Why? I'm really getting into…" Fred explained the situation "Jinkies, say no more Freddie I'm on my way, see you in a minute."

Velma collected up her things and put the books away ready to be put back on the shelves

"Well, it's all coming together nicely, aside from Daphne being attacked by something that is. At least Shaggy and Scooby got to her in time" said Velma to herself as she walked to the elevator. She stepped inside and pressed the button to take her to the main floor of the library. The car began to move upwards then it shuddered to a halt the power went off and the emergency light came on. Velma swore under her breath, she knew there was some maintenance work being done on the lifts this week and she'd gone and picked the broken one. She was just about to reach for the alarm button when the lift plunged downwards causing her to cry out in surprise. A few seconds later the car came to an abrupt halt throwing her to the floor. Velma lay there stunned for a few seconds; the feeling of ice-cold water on her face brought her round. She looked around wondering where the water was coming from; it was coming in from the bottom of the door. Velma leapt to her feel and jabbed the up button as well as the lift alarm button, the lift began to descend and water began to fill the car, seconds later the emergency lights went out.

"Jinkies! Help! Please help!" screamed Velma pounding on the car walls. Velma pulled out her phone; she looked at the display hoping against all hope that despite being in a metal box that she had a signal. Whilst there was none her phone did provide some light which kept her from being completely overwhelmed by panic. Cursing Faraday she used the light on her phone to look for the emergency phone. She pulled the panel open and took out the phone only to find that the chord had been cut. She hammered on the walls of the car and screamed at the top of her voice while she tried to think of something more proactive to do.

Fred parked in the car-park opposite the library and sat in the van wondering where Velma was, he looked at his watch. He decided to give her a couple more minutes before going into the library and look for her.

The water was now up to waist and rising rapidly. The water was so cold, her feet were numb she was beginning to lose feeling in her legs; she could see her breath as she exhaled.

Fred got out of the van and headed for the library; he stopped to help some old ladies across the street then resumed his gentle stroll.

Velma was now treading water, her head touching the top of the elevator car. She fumbled around to find the maintenance hatch. There was some movement but something was holding it closed from the outside; the feeling of cold was beginning to overtake the feeling of terror. Her fingers felt rubbery and unresponsive, her body was shaking violently. Tiredness was taking hold, keeping herself afloat was becoming increasingly difficult.

Fred walked up the steps to the library keeping an eye out for Velma as he did so. He stopped to buy a couple of boxes of cookies from some of the local girl scouts who had a stall outside the library; after all the cookie supply at HQ was running low. When inside he looked around for Velma expecting her to be at the front of the library where she usually waited. _Odd_ he thought she was nowhere in sight. Usually you could set your watch by Velma, she was almost pathologically punctual so should have been here by now. He decided to ask at the desk to see if they'd seen her.

The car was full and Velma could hold her breath no longer, her lungs were on fire, she coughed and her stomach filled with ice-cold water, she doubled in pain as the water sucked the last heat from her body. She sunk to the bottom of the car, landing hard which knocked what breath she had out of her, reflectively breathed in, the shock of the cold on her lung was the final straw she twitched then was still. There was a crackle from behind the panel as the car's electronics shorted out.

"Hi have you seen..."

Fred was interrupted by the lift alarm sounding. The staff tried to open the door but it refused to budge. Fred forced the door open and almost fell in, someone shone a light down, all they could see was water. While one librarian called the emergency services another used the emergency key to override the lift systems and bring the lift up. The lift shuddered and the cables groaned in protest at hauling the extra weight of water but slowly it rose, speeding up as it emptied. Finally it was there, they opened the door and what remained of the water poured out. Someone screamed, inside Velma's body was slumped motionless on the floor, she was facing the door, her face was pale and lips blue; her eyes open but lifeless, water trickled from her mouth.

Velma couldn't move, he body was too heavy but somehow she was being jostled gently, there was a shudder and the movement stopped. She was surrounded by light, blurry shapes in the light called her name, she closed her eyes and it all went dark.


	7. Names

Shaggy sat, drummed his fingers together and waited outside Daphne's cubicle. She was currently being assessed by a burns specialist prior to being moved up to the burns unit for further treatment. He checked his watch again wondering where on earth Fred and Velma had got to, they were supposed to be coming straight here. His attention moved to the cubicle as they wheeled Daphne out of the cubicle in a wheelchair "Well Miss Blake if you respond well you might even get to go home today" said one of the doctors.

"Thanks doctor, hey Shag I'm off to the burns unit to be covered in gloop."

"Like OK, I'll come along to see where it is then go and get you some new clothes."

"Thanks, let Fred and Velma know where I am so they can find me when they get here."

"OK, like I wonder what's keeping them, Fred said they were coming straight here."

"Guess Velma got stuck in the library; I doubt she'd notice the end of the world in there."

"Yeah like she'd just go shush and carry on reading."

"I'd like to visit her world for a holiday but I don't think I could live there."

They passed the main trauma area on the way to the lifts; there was a degree of commotion going on; evidently they were preparing for a new arrival, the red phone was ringing. They entered the lift just as the details were read out, a priority-1 call, a drowning in a lift in the basement of the public library; the patient, a female in her 20's. Daphne and Shaggy stared at each other as the doors closed, a sense of unease came over them.

Velma was jolted awake, her senses were overwhelmed by noise, bright lights, pain – it felt like her lungs were shredded but above all cold, mind-numbing cold filled every fibre of her being.

_Feels good to be alive_ she thought with dark humour and immediately brought up a load of water.

"That's it Velma, bring it up" said someone in white.

"Velma, oh man you're back with us" said Fred.

"Yeah, living the dream" she croaked. Fred reached out and held her hand, it felt like he was holding onto a block of ice but he didn't let go.

"Hang in there Vel, we'll be at the hospital soon" said Fred.

"I'm hanging, I'm hanging" she said and gave his hand a squeeze before slipping back into unconsciousness.

A couple of hours later Velma was resting in a bay in the trauma room hooked up to various monitors, IV's, oxygen and under as many blankets as she could get hold of. She was waiting to be moved up to an observation ward as she was being kept in overnight.

"Hey Velms, just been told you can have visitors" Velma looked up to see Daphne standing at the foot of her bed. Like her she was wearing a hospital gown. Daphne's skin was bright red and inflamed from where it had come into contact with the cocoon she was wearing white gloves.

"Your skin looks nasty" croaked Velma.

"Just a reaction to the cocoon. Feels like an extreme chemical peel, should be better in a day or so. Got to wear these gloves so I don't scratch my skin off. Shaggy's off getting me some more clothes, those ones are ruined and I'm not leaving here wearing this, I mean it's not even purple." Daphne walked in and sat on a chair next to Velms's bed.

"Fred's doing the same for me, what clothes the medics didn't cut off are soaking wet. Got to stay in overnight too" Velma sat up with a hacking cough; Daphne rubbed her back then passed her some water after the coughing fit subsided "jinkies my lungs feel like they've been worked over by a cheese-grater. What exactly attacked you?" Daphne decided she would do the talking from now on, it was clear Velma was short of breath even without talking so decided to start at the beginning.

"Well it started when I got a call from Shaggy and Scooby…" soon Velma was sitting upright, riveted by what Daphne had to say "… and I came round just as we pulled-up at the hospital."

"Wow" said Velma "I don't know whether to say zoinks or jinkies. Cooked waffle batter you say, hmmmm" Velma started to think but quickly got tired so gave up and lay back on the bed "I'm not sure which of us had the worse day Daph."

"Hey don't push yourself you're too sick to think; you can tell me all about it tomorrow." Their discussion was interrupted by Shaggy and Fred coming arriving, each carried an armful of clothes. Shaggy was also carrying two large thermos flasks.

"New cloths for you Daph and like some hot chocolate and soup for you Velma, Scoob and me made this." Shaggy placed the flasks on Velma's bed.

"Thanks guys, you're the best." chorused Daphne and Velma.

"Clothes for tomorrow and some warm pj's and bed-socks for tonight Velma."

"Yes! I hate cold feet, Freddie could you put the bed-socks on me please" Velma wiggled her toes and gave a contented 'ahhh' the moment they were on her feet.

Soon Velma was moved up to her room, they all followed and waited there while Daphne got herself sorted out. They could all see that Velma was rapidly flagging as the events of the day began to catch up with her.

"Like Daph's ready to leave now" said Shaggy as Daphne appeared looking dressed and ready to go holding her medicine.

"Yep. Looks like Velma's ready for an early night you coming Freddie?" said Daphne.

"No way, I'm not leaving Velma alone tonight" said Fred "that accident was no accident. Daph you'd better stay with Shag and Scoob just to be safe. Guys, Daphne's safety is in your hands" Shaggy and Scooby stood to attention and saluted, Daphne gave an uncertain smile.

"I don't think that was quite as reassuring as you think Freddie" whispered Velma. She herself had had to hide at Shaggy and Scooby's place for over a week once when Gibby Norton had hired ninja's to kidnap her. Whilst they were more than able protectors she did have to endure them making her breakfast, brunch, elevenses, lunch, dinner, tea, afternoon tea, more dinner, supper and half a dozen midnight snacks, one for each time-zone in the Union; for every day of her stay. When the final showdown came Gibby's ninjas failed to kidnap her as they brought neither engine-hoist nor tow truck.

As the evening came the pace of the hospital slowed, Fred sat in the chair next to her bed with his feet propped up on a stool; Velma felt warm enough to lend him one of her blankets to cover himself with. As evening turned to night she tried to sleep but it was no good, finally just after midnight she sat up in bed. She just couldn't sleep; hospitals weren't her favourite places to be in as a visitor, even less so as a patient. Aside from that there were the gallons of hot tea; coffee and soup she had drunk to try to warm herself up which were now working their way through her system. Still she figured that the regular exercise would help her warm up even more but that wasn't the main reason for her sleeplessness, nor was it the fear of nightmares. Above all the one thing that was keeping her awake was the noise of her gallant protector and guardian, Fred, snoring away in the chair next to her bed. Velma's phone vibrated, it was a message from Daphne, it seemed she was having the same problem as her. Velma smiled for a second then replied and their conversation began.

**D:** Cant sleep, Shag & Scoob snore 2 loud. Im nt evn in same room.

**V:** Fred sounds like brah-brah-brah whoosh then he gurgles from time to time.

**D:** Lol shag is buzz-saw, scoob is air-raid siren.

**V:** Prod Shag till he rolls over.

**D:** Why?

**V:** Just do it

**D:** Rotflmao he moos like a cow.

V: Hours of fun, what about Fred?

**D:** Tickle under chin

**V:** Fog horn! Make it stop :-)

And so it went on, they even exchanged video clips and sound recordings for later reference. Every so often the doctors and nurses would come in to see if Fred was OK and occasionally check on Velma as well, there was still a risk of complications from getting water in her lungs. Finally she could take the noise no longer so shuffled out to visit the nurses' station opposite her room to ask for some ear plugs. While she was waiting Velma looked around everything looked normal, doctors in white coats; nurses in uniform... everything looked _normal_. One of the doctors walked passed, under her white coat was a pair of pink pyjama bottoms and a faded Hawaiian shirt. Another doctor was wearing a kilt and old t-shirt emblazoned with a very faded heavy-metal logo.

"Excuse me, where does the hospital clean all the uniforms?" asked Velma to one of the nurses.

"Oh here in the hospital, there's a huge laundry thing somewhere in the basement, it uses high pressure steam to clean things."

"Jinkies that's it!" Velma began but a coughing fit stopped her exposition in its tracks. The nurses helped her back to bed, put her on some oxygen; gave her the ear-plugs and some pills to help her get to sleep; the next thing she knew it was morning.

Fred yawned "Barely sleep a wink, man I never knew you snored so much Vel."

Velma sat up with her hands on her hips, clearly un-amused "_I_ have an excuse, I nearly drowned, what's yours?"

"Me, snore? Are you sure?"

"Yes you."

"Well I wasn't lying down" he replied, _and that makes a difference, how? _she thought.

"This is for you" said Velma passing Fred a brochure on nasal surgery "the nurses all agreed to chip in and the hospital administrator has given you a fifty per cent discount. He was working late last night and it turns out his office is directly above this room."

"Oh."

"But still thanks for staying with me Fred I really appreciated it."

"Man I just couldn't leave your side; I thought we'd lost you for a while. You're part of our family Velma" Fred put his arms around Velma and hugged her.

"Awww thanks Fred" she said leaning into him, letting herself being engulfed by him.

As Fred was awake Velma was able to sleep for a few hours in the morning so felt better, she felt even better when the doctors told her she was well enough to go home.

"Man here they come" said Shaggy looking out of the van's window; they'd parked close to the entrance as possible so Velma wouldn't have to walk far. He waved at Velma, she responded enthusiastically.

"Guys" said Velma as she hugged Shaggy and Daphne as soon as she was in the van.

When they were at HQ Shaggy, Scooby and Velma headed into the kitchen while Fred and Daphne started to get the meeting room together.

"Ahhh did the big Freddy-bear get worried for our little Velly-welly" Daphne ruffled his hair as she spoke.

"Oh knock it off Daph, I _was_ worried."

"Oh come on Fred, Velma's built like a tank."

"But Daph, I, I've seen drowned people before. Daph, she looked like one of them."

"Jeepers I'm sorry Fred, she looked rough when I saw her in hospital but…"

"Didn't want to worry you Daph; you'd had a bad time as well so it wasn't fair on you."

"True, that wasn't the best day we've ever had… Did you see that?"

"What?"

"I thought I just saw Velma carrying her big stand-mounted illuminated magnifying thing towards the kitchen."

"Probably looking for the food they left for her." Daphne nodded as they both imagined the scene of chaos and pandemonium which usually occurred there.

In the kitchen nothing could be further from the truth, it was a scene of quiet concentration. Shaggy was hunched over Velma's magnifying glass working away at something on the work surface. Scooby and Velma were either side of him, giving assistance as required.

"Tweezers" said Shaggy.

"Tweezers" said Velma passing him a small pair.

"Probe."

"Probe."

"Mop" Scooby wiped his brow.

"Pink and white dual micro-pump."

"Pink and white dual micro-pump" Velma passed him a small dual nozzle syringe, one chamber was filled with a white substance, the other was pink. Velma and Scooby watched in silence as he worked.

"Mop" Scooby wiped Shaggy's brow again, the most difficult part of the procedure was about to begin.

"Sprinkles" he said.

Five minutes later he was finished. Velma hugged him as Scooby gave him a high-five.

"Impressive Shaggy, they look really good" she said as they looked upon their creation.

"Like thanks for the help Velma we've been wanting to make these for ages."

"No problem Shag, you deserve a reward for saving Daphne. Oh hi Daph" said Velma just as Daphne walked in the kitchen. Daphne stopped, stared then dashed for the food piled on the kitchen table.

"Mini doughnuts! Mine! Yummy!" said Daphne, she grabbed them by the handful and began to devour them.

"Daph wait! They're not tiny ring doughnuts their…" seconds later Daphne's panicked squeaking filled the room "…calamari rings with frosting and sprinkles."

Velma put her hand on Shaggy's shoulder "I think she's just worked that out."

"Fancy some seafood special noodles from Dan's Noodle Bar?" asked Shaggy

"I've got some coupons, let's get a take-out so we can eat during the meeting" she said running out the door as they left Daphne to her own devices.

"Reah" agreed Scooby, proof if he ever needed it that Velma was indeed a genius.

Half an hour later they were sat round the meeting room table, Fred stood at the front of a white board which filled the wall.

"Right gang; let's review where we go too yesterday. So we had four parallel lines of investigation underway…" Fred began to write up the events on the whiteboard but quickly became aware he was the only one paying any attention, he looked round "You OK Daph?"

On one side of the table sat a distinctly fragile and green around the gills looking Daphne, desperately trying to ignore what was going on at the other side of the table where Shaggy, Scooby and Velma were eating from numerous take-away cartons.

"Hey Daph, who's the best?" mumbled Shaggy, Daphne turned, the next second she grabbed hold of her mouth and ran out of the door.

"What now guys?" asked Fred he turned to see Shaggy, Scooby and Velma waving at him, all had copious quantities of squid and octopus tentacles hanging out of their mouths.

"Who's doing the best Cthulhu impression Freddie?" Velma gurgled.

Fred sighed, not for the first time he wondered if he should have followed the advice of his school's career advisor and taken up landscape gardening. He trudged off to find Daphne, in the nearest bathroom judging by the noise, leaving the mythos masticators to finish their food.

Before Daphne returned to the meeting room Fred had Shaggy, Scooby and Velma clear away all the mess, including all the 'Crispy Tentacle Time' kid's meal toys they had put where Daphne had been sitting. Finally he was able to get the meeting back on track and they went through the discoveries of the day.

"Kubickle" said Shaggy.

"Bless you" said the rest of the gang.

"No, the name Kubickle, it kept coming up while we was looking around at the websites." Shaggy noticed Velma sit back in her chair, mouthing the name, she sat forwards again.

"The TK process" said Velma putting her hands on the table.

"Huh?"

"The Traynor-Kubickle process, it's a chemical process for the efficient dissolution of fats and other yucky stuff. Mostly used in industry now as they found it was just too problematic for use in a domestic setting."

"So?"

"The residue we've found in the box and elsewhere is a by-products of the TK process. That's what I got from the library. I've requested more information about the failed domestic trials of the process via inter-library loans; the journals I need to see are too old to be on-line."

"Well let's go talk to them" said Fred.

"You'll need a medium to get to Traynor and ticket to New Zealand for Kubickle. But he didn't do it Fred, he must be in his 90's now."  
>"Still, it is a lead" said Daphne "you won't find that many people with that name round here."<p>

"Good point Daph, we can check the local records and phone book,"

"Like I've just remembered, me and Scoob have got to go to the radio station to talk to the phone-in show host about the callers" said Shaggy as he stood up/

"I'm going to take all the data and have a big think" said Velma "I'll be in my think tank."

Velma had a special thinking room, in the centre was a circular desk with a computer, radio and coffee machine, the roof was mostly skylight, the walls from waist height and above were white boards, beneath that was a continuous bookcase full of reference books. The floor was soft, a hammock, reclining sky chair, stool, music stand, hard-case for a cello, beanbags and a dog basket were the only real furniture. Aside from allowing Velma to brainstorm on a large scale it was where she and Shaggy practiced Tai Chi, whereas Fred would lift weights and Daphne use a punch bag, Shaggy and Velma preferred something more peaceful when it came to exercise and working out stress. Scooby didn't join in but he liked the peace and quiet, plus the odd Scooby Snack which would come his way. It was also a quiet place where she could play the cello and clear her mind. Velma entered the room and closed the door; the radio automatically switched on and tuned to her favourite station, she took a white board marker pen in each hand and began to work.

Shaggy and Scooby sat in a studio at the radio station and listened to the tapes of the various people who had called in about the giant moths. They had just listened to all of them back-to-back.

"I've got to hand it to you guys I never thought of doing that but you're right, they sound like they're same person or close relatives."

"A coincidence is a coincidence until you keep on getting coincidences so often that you have to think that it may not be a coincidence after all so you start digging deeper to see if there is a connection and that the things are not, like, coincidences. Like Velma's would use fewer, bigger words but that's what we're doing."

"You don't say, but I prefer your version it has a sense of movement."

"Like I gotta ask, have you seen anything when you're out late, I know you do the late show on Saturdays."

"Not seen a thing, but as I'm driving I like to look at the road ahead you understand, but I'll ask around."

"Thanks man."

"Look I don't mean to pry but how are your friends doing? The police have asked us not to say anything just yet."  
>"Doing OK, but yeah, please don't say anything till you get the nod."<p>

"Will do, well here are copies of the tapes like you asked" and he handed Shaggy CD in a case.

"Thanks man, Velma can work on these." When they got back to HQ Velma would copy the files to Annie then have her set to work on analysing the recordings. On the way back they stopped off at the library to collect copies of the visitors books and lift maintenance details.

At HQ Fred and Daphne were following up the other leads.

Fred leant back in his chair away from the computer as Daphne walked in "Daph I thought there was supposed to be news blackout on what happened to you and Vel,"

"There is, local headline news is about vanishing clothes and arguments over the proposed flyover."

"Not here it isn't" Fred pointed to the monitor.

"'Have Mystery Inc found evidence of giant moths, conspiracy of silence of incompetence?.' Freddie where did you?"

"On the giant moths site."

"That never happened! 'Ran screaming for mercy' no way!" Daphne kicked an empty waste paper basket across the room. "I am so not a drama queen!"

Fred had managed to calm Daphne down by the time Shaggy and Scooby arrived. Shaggy passed the CD to Velma who returned to her thinking room to upload the audio files for analysis. The rest of the gang looked at the library visitors book for yesterday, they stopped and looked at each other. The only entry for that day was for K&K Bus. Sup. The entry was by one Miss T. Kubickle. Scooby went to get Velma, this was breaking news.

Scooby entered the room followed a short while later by Velma who was carrying a large box which had just been delivered by courier She carefully opened it and took out some samples of washing powder and liquid.

"Fantastic, just the samples I wanted. You've got to love this overnight courier stuff" said Velma as she hurriedly closed the box. Scooby sniffed the air as did Daphne; there was more than soap in there.

"What's this other stuff?" said Fred, the box was still quite full.

"Just stuff for me" said Velma quickly.

"Come on Velma, don't be coy" said Daphne

Aside from the samples the box contained a huge bunch of flowers, a get-well card and presents. Along from the mandatory box of chocolates, there several bags of coffee beansbut most of the space was taken up by a large teddy-bear wearing an orange turtleneck sweater; it was holding something red but was immediately snatched by Velma who dashed off to hide it in her thinking room before anyone could see exactly what it was holding. After that she sent the samples off to be analysed.

"Wow who are those from?" asked Shaggy.

"All from Mr Coffee-Shop, he's in Seattle at the moment" whispered Daphne.

"Is that why her phone is always engaged I thought they only met up for coffee?" Daphne raised an eyebrow "Well that's what Velma said" said Shaggy defensively.

"And you believed her? What colour was she when she said that?"

"A kind of reddy-pink colour, I thought it was just a healthy glow."

"Oh there's a lot more than coffee drinking going on to give her that 'healthy glow' Shag of that I'm sure" said Daphne.

"Why don't you just ask her?"

"What, and spoil all the fun? Velma's gonna spill the beans soon enough I can feel it. Look I don't want to spook her by prying too much but I've found out that..."

Daphne's monologue was interrupted by a summons from Velma to go to her thinking room.

On one wall was a rough drawing of Coolsville with the affected shops marked in red. The potential targets marked in blue, one of them had a big arrow pointing to it. None of the gang dared show interest in any of the other walls.

"This is where the next moth attack will be" said Velma pointing to the arrowed store.

"Way? Said Fred and received a jab in the ribs from Shaggy and Daphne.

"I'm glad you asked" said Velma who immediately walked to another of the walls.

They didn't stop her in time; half an hour later and after more operational research and linear mathematics than they wanted to know Velma had explained why the next crime would happen where she said it would.

"My theory is that whatever is causing the clothes to dissolve is delivered via the fire suppression system. The moth only makes an appearance later."

"Like what about the Laundromat and people's homes?"

"Good point Shaggy, the samples are off with Coolville Analytics. I have a hunch we'll know more of the answer when we get the results from those and compare them with the local samples."

"So we get to go late-night clothes shopping?" said Daphne

"Yep, all in the name of science."

"Like Scoob wants to know if we can go late-night snack shopping, all in the name of hunger?"

That evening the gang crept through the store room of the shop looking for the trigger device or anything else suspicious.

"Find anything?" whispered Fred.

"No, it may be up somewhere high like some of the other. I'll leave that to you, Daph and Shag-gy nonononono Freddie!" cried Velma as he picked her up and placed her on his shoulders.

Daphne and Shaggy climbed up the shelves.

"Like Daph, it that it?" said Shaggy pointing to the far corner of the room

"I think so. Fred can you drive Velma round and have a look?"

"Careful Fred" Velma said clutching onto this head as he walked.

"I think so but I can't reach it, where's the sire detector, ah there it is, that way Fred. Yes it looks like it's been modified like the some I looked at.""

Velma was close enough to the fire detector to see a red LED come on; it flashed for a while then stayed on.

"It's been activated, Fred put me down we need to get under cover."

"There's no cover!" said Daphne.


	8. Naked Science

Velma quickly took of her glasses and opened a box on the floor by her feet; it contained rolls of duct tape, hid her glasses inside and closed the lid. Seconds later a loud beep sounded and the fire suppression system came on. The spray drenched them in seconds, a minute later it was all over and the system stopped spraying water.

"Don't worry gang it's fairly harmless in dilute form" said Velma as she retrieved her glasses from the box.

"Like, like Velma" said Shaggy, his eyes widening "are you sure?"

"Yes, why?" she realized that Shaggy wasn't looking at her face rather his eyes were fixated on her chest, she looked down to see her jumper begin to fall apart and dissolve before her eyes, along with the rest of her clothes. Fred and Daphne looked down, their clothes were also dissolving.

"Shaggy!" Velma stared at Shaggy as his clothes dissolved like hers "Jinkies Shaggy you're nearly naked."

"Zoinks! Like, so are you."

"What do we do now?" they asked simultaneously.

"You hide!" said Fred and Daphne, Daphne grabbed Velma while Fred grabbed Shaggy and pulled them behind some boxes on either side of the room not a moment too soon as the last remains of their clothes dissolved away, the contents of their pockets falling to the floor as they hid. Aside from the sound of dripping water there was silence, eventually Velma spoke up.

"Well, on the _plus_ side we now know my theory as to the method of delivery of the chemicals is correct" she said quietly.

"Planning on collecting your Nobel Prize _au natural _then Professor Dinkley?" said Daphne clearly annoyed at her situation.

Scooby stood midway between the boxes trying to work out what was going on and wondering why the rest of the gang were hiding. He was also puzzled as to how they had split up, normally Fred would go with Daphne, while Shaggy went with Velma but this time Fred was with Shaggy and Daphne with Velma.

"Like it's because we're not wearing any clothes Scoob" said Shaggy. This puzzled Scooby even more as nobody objected to him not wearing clothes.

"Like you're a dog Scoob."

"Ro?"

"I'll explain later, much later."

And there they stayed for a while, slowly getting goosebumps and looking at each other over the top of the boxes. All of the clothing that was in the room had dissolved away like theirs. It was also clear that having been soaked the cardboard boxes were starting to sag, soon they'd be lying on the floor,

"Well at least my wallet survived" said Shaggy; they looked at the grey and black duct-tape wallet.

"Wait, that tape wallet of Shaggy's hasn't been damaged but it has cloth in it" said Daphne.

"The coating must mean that the chemical can't get through to the cloth" said Velma.

"That's it! No worries gang I've got a plan!" Fred stood up and leapt over the boxes and headed for the box of tape that had sheltered Velma's glasses.

"Freddie!" screamed Daphne and Velma hiding down behind the boxes and covering their eyes.

"Is it safe to look?" whispered Daphne a short while later above the sound of tape being pulled and torn.

"How should I know? I've still got my eyes closed. Shaggy is it safe for us to look?" said Velma, there was a brief pause before Shaggy replied.

"Like yeah, there's nothing dangerous here; no monsters, ghosts, mummies, zombies, werewolves..."

"That's not quite what I meant but thanks all the same" replied Velma.

"What d'ya think of my duct-tape togs girls?" said Fred.

They cautiously peered over the boxes. Fred was proudly standing there, to all intense and purposes, wearing his regular clothes.

"Got yours here" said Fred walked towards them carrying their new clothes.

"Just put them on the box and we'll get it" said Velma quickly as she and Daphne hunkered down behind the boxes.

"And a couple of rolls of tape, just in case we need to make some adjustments" said Daphne. Fred did as he was asked, Shaggy wheeled over a clothes rack which Fred had turned into some kind of privacy screen, then the girls were left so they could get dressed in peace. "Sorry girls, I'm having trouble making a hairbrush and mirror with this tape" called Fred.

"That's fine Fred, thanks for the screen" said Velma as she and Daphne stood up and stretched.

"I'm not sure about this" said Daphne quietly as she examined the new clothes.

"Well we could use _these_ to cover ourselves with" said Velma strategically covering herself with two rectangular strips of black plastic.

"Point taken, let's give these a go."

After a small amount of adjustment the gang collected their fallen things and got ready leave the storeroom.

"There are times I wonder why we bring Fred along and then he just delivers in spades or tape as in this case" said Velma.

"I never knew you could get purple or orange duct tape" said Daphne examining her sleeve "What's up Scooby?"

Scooby held up a paw for silence and indicated towards the front of the store. They slowly crept out of the store room and made their way to the shop floor. Soon they too could hear a faint whining noise coming from outside. Safe from within the shadows they watched a giant moth flap around outside for a few minutes before leaving.

"Moths don't whine" said Velma.

"Like how many giant moths do you know?" said Shaggy.

"Personally only one, and that's one too many. Fair point though, I suppose it's possible that there is an inverse relationship between the size of the moth and the frequency of any sound it makes. There must be a point where the sound moves from ultrasound into the audible part of the spectrum due to the change in scale of any sound producing structures."

"I have my moments" said Shaggy proudly.

"So true Shag, the point is that what we heard sounded more artificial than anything else."

"Rand rells rof raffles" said Scooby.

"Speaking of waffles" said Fred.

"Like, time for breakfast" said Shaggy getting excited.

"After we've spoken to the store owner" said Fred picking up the phone, Shaggy shoulders sagged.

"And the police" said Velma, Shaggy deflated.

"But, but that could take _minutes_" he complained.

"And your point is?" said Daphne.

"Those minutes could be better spent eating."

Having proved that Shaggy could survive minutes without food they headed off for breakfast. That done they walked down the street back to where they had parked the Mystery Machine.

"We do need some proper clothes though; it just feels odd" said Daphne.

"Yeah, the tape is starting to mess with my skin" said Velma.

"It feels funny too" said Shaggy.

"Still it is nice being out this early" said Fred.

"Yeah it's so peaceful" said Daphne, just then sounds of an angry commotion could be heard "or not."

"Looks like it's coming from the Laundromat over there" said Velma as a police car pulled up outside.

"At some point today we _will_ make it back to the van" said Fred.

The source of the commotion was soon clear, some of the clothes had dissolved in the wash leaving nothing but zips and buttons. The gang listened in over the hubbub as the police officer tried to restore order and collect statements.  
>"Jinkies!" everyone went silent and looked at Velma "sorry, got carried away. Anyway we've found a clue."<p>

"Well duh" went Fred but was stopped by an elbow in the side from Daphne. Velma walked over to the police officer.

"Officer, could you ask the people to stand next to their washing machines holding the soap that they used. Freddie can you find me a notepad and pen." While this was being arranged she went to Scooby "Scooby can you wait outside for a while please, I need you to help me with an experiment."

"Rokay" Scooby trotted outside with Shaggy in tow.

"Right then" said Velma as Fred handed her the notebook and pen. Like a General inspecting her troops Velma marched along the lines of assembled clothes washers, asking questions of each of them and inspecting the contents of the drums. She then spun round on her heels.

"Shaggy, Scooby front and centre!"

The pair immediately appeared and stood to attention, Generalissimo Dinkley was not to be kept waiting. Velma walked around them as she spoke.

"Gentlemen, what we have here is more than one of our regular clues, it may well be the key to unlocking this mystery. Your mission, which you will choose to accept, is to examine all of the washing soaps used here and to give me your clustering of the data within each of your synesthetic spaces. After that I have one final control task. Be brave and do your duty; this mystery needs you."

Everyone in the room blinked except Shaggy and Scooby.  
>"Reah" said Scooby "rets roo rit."<p>

"Game faces on Scoob you start at that end and I'll start at the other"

Fred and Daphne could just about watch as Shaggy and Scooby methodically went along the line smelling, feeling and tasting the soaps. When this was done they individually reported back to Velma who had them examine two more samples."

When this was done the pair stood in front of Velma.

"Excellent work gentleman and now for your control task" she produced two boxes of Scooby Snacks from behind her back and handed one to each of them.

"Control task?" said Fred.

"Yeah do they have enough self-control to not to try and eat it all in one mouthful…" said Daphne "…and no they don't."

"Right gang, thanks to Shaggy and Scooby's skills we now have our next line of investigation. And it has nothing to do with moths."

"And this would be?" said Fred.

"Anything as long as it doesn't involve me having to watch them eat soap again" said Daphne quietly.

"The soap powder itself. To summaries Shaggy and Scooby were able to confirm what I suspected, there was a common factor in the soaps that caused the clothes to dissolve, Most people using soap brought a while ago were not affected, most but not all. However everyone whose clothes dissolved fell into the same group identified separately by the boys. It was as close to a double-blind test I could come up with in the time."

"So if we can find out where the soap is coming from then we'll…" began Fred.

"Wait, everyone used different brands. None of this is made locally Velma" said Daphne.

"Exactly, it must be getting contaminated before it arrives, a common factor in the upstream logistics chain I suspect."

"Right so we find out the where it's stored and comes from then we're most of the way there."

"Exactly" said Velma "Come on gang let's go to HQ and start work."

Fred gave a contented sigh they got to the van; he pulled out the key ready to unlock it.

"What's wrong?" said Daphne as Velma fidgeted on the spot.

"Damn this tape" muttered Velma furiously scratching her sides.

"This way" said Daphne dragging Shaggy and Velma towards a near-by motorbike accessories shop.

"Awww come on guys I even had the key in the lock" said Fred hurrying to catch up.

Fred and Shaggy stepped out of the changing rooms; both had picked almost identical outfits, black leather trousers, black t-shirt, black leather jacket and shades.

"I'll be back" said Fred.

"Like, I'll get snacks" said Shaggy.

"Rasta ra rista raby" said Scooby who had just opted for some shades.

Fred, Shaggy and Scooby then applaud as the girls appear in their new gear. –Daphne was wearing a purple leather jacket, purple t-shirt and black trousers while Velma wore a dark-red all-in-one leather outfit. She had also selected some carbon-knuckle gloves to wear just in case Shaggy let her ride his bike again.

"I creak when I walk" complained Velma as they headed back to the Mystery Machine.

"That's what my Nan says" said Fred.

"Yeah but she's nearly ninety, I'm too young to creak."

"True but you make those creaks sound _so_ good" said Fred, Velma briefly went the same colour as her outfit while Daphne stifled a laugh.

"Like Velma, Scooby says you're already ahead of Daphne in the 'people looking back at you' stakes."

"Shut-up" said Daphne and Velma simultaneously.

Back at HQ they hit the phones, there was no one place locally where all the soap was delivered too but they were able to identify a common factor in the movement of the soap powder. It all got trucked in and most of the trucks used one particular overnight truck-stop before it was delivered to Coolsville the next morning.

"Looks like a road-trip to a truck stop and motel. Better book in for the night" said Fred.

"Well Daph you wanted a life full of glamour, fine dining and travel and like now you've got it" said Shaggy, Daphne's ears went red. Fred and Velma grabbed Shaggy and carried him out of the room before she could reply.

It was late afternoon by the time they arrived, green panels covered up the Mystery Machines markings and they wore their new biker gear so they could arrive incognito. They waited in the van, getting a feeling for the comings and goings and listened to the local news. The headline feature was an interview with two sisters who had been escaped after being abducted by a giant moth. They reported that some hikers had also been captured and turned into human-moth hybrids after being bitten by a giant worm-like creature.

"Moths aren't social insects, this doesn't make sense" said Velma.

"Like that's not all, we haven't even met the suspects yet" said Shaggy.

"Shag, this is what detectives do all the time, sometime you know who they are, other times you may not know who they are till the very end" said Fred.

"Ro rone re row rystery" said Scooby.

"Exactly, this is one of those 'no-one we know' mysteries we encounter from time to time" said Daphne.

"Well I think we have an idea of who we're dealing with, not their identities yet but we do know a fair bit about them" said Velma.

"There are only a few of them, two or three" said Daphne.

"They are good at leaving a confusing trail, all those companies" said Fred.

"But, like dumb at naming them, it always has two K's in the name" said Shaggy

"Ratical rand rusiness rike" said Scooby,

"Practical and business like, exactly Scooby. Now I'm going to hazard a guess, but the people we've heard on the radio are the same people who wrote the entries on the giant moth site and are one and the same as our mysterious perpetrators" said Velma.

"And they're called Kubickle?" said Fred

"Possibly or they have some kind of relationship with the name. Have you got the results from hunt through the local phone book Fred?" said Velma.

"I thought Daphne was doing that, did you Daph?"

"No, you never asked but I thought Shaggy was doing it while he was looking at the websites."

"Since when? All this techy-search stuff is Velma's forte."

"It is when she's asked to do it."

"So, when we get back we are _all_ going to look, Scooby it's your job to make sure we get this done" said Fred.

"I mean it's not name you'd pick to stay unnoticed" said Daphne.

"That's for sure" said Velma "And speaking about being unnoticed if you think I'm going into the diner dressed like this you have another think coming. I'm going to my room and ordering room service."

"And if they don't have any?" said Fred.

"You know that other thought?" said Velma.

"OK you got me there, come on gang let's have a look around then check-in" said Fred.

Having checked out the area where the trucks would park-up for the night they headed to reception.

"Hi, the name's Fred Jones could we have two twin rooms overlooking the truck park please? We'd like to keep an eye on our van." Fred handed over the cash for the rooms.

"Yeah, whatever" said the receptionist as he eyed the group with a mixture of suspicion and indifference "just keep the noise down and don't break anything. Have a good time boys." Daphne and Velma's ears turned red at the implication of what the receptionist had just said and were whisked away by Fred and Shaggy before they could reply.

"Honestly, the nerve of some people" steamed Daphne when they were out of earshot.

"I've a good mind to go back and give that receptionist a piece of my mind" seethed Velma.

"And she's got a lot of mind to give" whispered Shaggy to Scooby who gave a quiet chuckle.

"I'll take that as a complement" said Velma.

"Relax girls. I guess they get a more, interesting, range of customers here."

"Interesting?" said Daphne.

"Yeah, like, you know, more, err, friendly" said Shaggy.

"_Friendly?_" said Daphne.

"Rhere roomed" whispered Scooby.

"I err expect that he thought you were, how can I put this, professional ladies."

"Prof…" Daphne began to go ballistic.

"You boys can keep digging a hole for yourselves but don't expect me to supply a ladder to get you out" said Velma interrupting Daphne.

"Thank you Velma" said Daphne as Fred and Shaggy finally took the hint.

"We've arrived" said Fred as they arrived at their rooms.

"Well we've stayed in worse" said Daphne as she entered her and Velma's room.

"True, plus we probably won't be sleeping much" said Velma.

"Now that's all done we should go back and formally identify ourselves and see if the staff here have seen anything unusual."

"I think you quickly learn to not see anything if you work here" said Shaggy.

"True but for a little green I suspect we can get the low-down" said Fred.

"Just like we never left the 1970's" said Daphne.

"The décor or the talk?" said Velma.

"Both."

Fred rang the bell at reception "I'm Fred Jones from Mystery Inc I'm here on official police…"

A giant worm-like creature reared up from behind the counter. It lunged for Fred's hand, sinking it's fangs into desk either side of his hand.

"…business" Fred froze.

Daphne slung him over her shoulder as they ran away down the corridor. The creature lumbered out from behind over the desk and began to give chase. They came to a T junction, Shaggy and Scooby went to the left while the rest of the gang went to the right. Shaggy and Scooby ducked into the first open room they could find slamming the door behind them. Seconds later the door opened slightly and a sign was hooked over the door before the door was closed and locked. Fred Daphne and Velma hid in a cleaning closet, they remained motionless and breathed as quietly as they could as something slithered and fragged itself past. Finally when they thought the coast was clear they peaked out into a thankfully empty corridor and began to look for Shaggy and Scooby.

"Where are they?" said Daphne.

"I hope they got away" said Velma.

"I think I have an idea where they are" said Fred looking at the sign on the door handle. The sign read "Quivering in terror under the bed. Please do not disturb."

"I'll get them, you two keep looking for clues" said Velma as she opened the door and walked inside "guys it's me, Velma."

A few minutes later Shaggy, Scooby and Velma were walking down the corridor looking for Fred and Daphne.

"Well Daph is sure that is the same thing that attacked her."

"Like we do too but how did it get here?"

"Hmmm, I'm not sure. I mean they're that not that fast and we're miles from town."

"Don't tell me there are more of them that all those eggs Daph saw have hatched!"

"I don't think so. Perhaps our mysterious Kubickle's are here or some other people involved in the crime."

"Like Velma what looks like a human but has grey mottled wings, grey hairy limbs, frilly antennae and compound eyes?"

"You thinking about your Halloween costume?"

"Ro, ro rostume" whimpered Scooby.

Shaggy took hold of Velma's head and gently turned to face the direction he was looking in

"Trick or treat" he whispered as they stared at the moth-human.

"Jinkies" whispered Velma.

"Time to run I think" said Shaggy as the creatures headed towards them.

Too shocked by what she saw Velma was dragged into motion by Shaggy as he and Scooby headed down the corridor and away from the creatures. They turned a corner into a dead-end corridor, ahead all of the doors to the rooms were open above each door was a small window; a cleaning trolley was at the far end.

"Those rooms are open, let's split up and hide" said Velma,

Velma ducked into one room, closing the door behind her. Shaggy and Scooby went into the room opposite and dived under the mattress but left the door open. The creatures walked in, they could sense them moving about the room, opening draws and looking in the bathroom. They heard a muffled high pitched sing-song voice say that there was nothing in this room and the two quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wait, they must be in the room opposite."

"Yes it is the only one with a closed door."

They peeked out from under the mattress to see the creatures leave and head from the opposite room. As soon as they were inside Shaggy and Scooby crept out from under the mattress and grabbed hold of a pair of chairs. There was the sound of thumping and bumping coming from behind the door. They stood on the chairs and looked through the window to see the moth creatures shaking the wardrobe. The tipped it forward and Velma tumbled out onto the floor at the feet of the moth creatures.

"Like wardrobe malfunction of the worst kind."


	9. Doom Service

"Oh both..." Velma was cut off by one of the creatures landing on her stomach knocking the wind out of her. Before she could recover her hands were secured behind her back, her ankles rapidly followed. She was picked up and thrown onto the bed, her glasses falling off her face onto the bed.

"What, hey get off me! Let me go!" She wriggled on the bed as they tied her knees together, her elbows were tied together till they almost touching "Ow, ow that hurts." One of the creatures pressed their hands over Velma's mouth. There was a hissing noise, Velma's eyes widened as the creature drew their hand over her mouth. This hissing stopped and the hand removed. The bottom half of Velma's face was covered with a grey substance.

"Mmmmmm!" cried Velma as she was rolled onto her back.

The creatures stood either side of her and raised their hands, palms open facing her. The hissing noise began again and they reached out for her.

Velma shook her head as she realised what was about to happen "Mmmmmm!"

She bucked and writhed as they placed a pillow case over her head then ran their hands all over her body, covering her head-to-toe with a white substance. Once done they paused for it to dry before resuming, each time they did this Velma's movements grew less and less, finally she was still, though you could faintly hear her straining against her imprisonment. They rolled her around spraying more cocoon material on her to finish the job.

"Feed her to our children" said one of the moth creatures.

"Better still have one bite her, make her one of us" said the other and then left.

"It doesn't take long, but is very painful, most don't survive the process."

A high-pitched whine came from the cocoon as it creaked and groaned.

There was a knock on door, the creature opened the door a fraction only to have it pushed open as a pair of maids in cleaning uniforms barged their way in, pushing a laundry trolley in front of them "Like, room cleaning service!" Both had copious amounts of blond curly hair and wore heavy make-up.

"We won't be a moment dear, if you'd just step outside for a moment" said a maid ushering the moth creature out of the door before it had time to protest "we'll leave everything as it is."

The moth creature stood outside twiddling its antennae unsure of what to do next.

"What are you doing here?" the other moth creature had returned carrying a large bag.  
>"Room being cleaned."<p>

Moments later the door opened and the maids left "all done as quickly as we could."

"The moth creatures looked inside; the cocoon was still where they had left it, that aside the room looked as clean as a new pin.  
>"Oh, thank you, it looks very clean" said one handing one of the maids a tip.<p>

"Rank Rou"

"Rank Rou?"

"My friend has a sore throat" said the other maid and they slowly walked down the corridor as the moth creatures rushed inside. They checked the cocoon, it seemed heavy enough and hauled it into the bag and zipped it closed. Neither of them noticed that the glasses on the bed were missing.

When they were out of sight Shaggy and Scooby let out a sigh of relief, removed their wigs, wiped their faces clean and hurried off to find Fred and Daphne.

"What happened? What took you so long?" said Fred when they finally met up.

"This" said Shaggy opening the cover to the laundry trolley.

"Mmmmm!" went Velma as she was uncovered then recovered

The gang walked along the corridor in silence for a few seconds.

"I think you forgot something Shag" said Fred.

"Like are you sure?"

"Yes we're sure" said Daphne.

"Man I can't think what, any idea Scoob?"

"Ro, rask Relma."

"Good idea man, Velma do you know what we forgot?"

"Mmmm! Mmm!" went the laundry trolley.

"Say, where _is_ Velma?"

"Ri ron't ro."

"Like let's see, we rescued her from the moth people, reunited her with her glasses then and quickly hid her in the laundry trolley so we could make our escape, set a decoy so they wouldn't notice."

"So far so good Shag" said Fred.

"Casually walked out of the room so as not to arouse suspicion."

"Good plan and then..." said Daphne

"Re rot a rip" said Scooby.

"Yeah , like they even gave us a tip for cleaning their room."

"Sounds good, they obviously fell for your disguise."

"Then we all met up safe and sound."

"So Velma is still...?" said Daphne looking at the laundry trolley which was now rocking from side-to-side mumphing angrily. Shaggy and Scooby looked nervously at each other, then at the trolley.

"Well, emm, like still tied-up in the laundry trolley perhaps?" Fred and Daphne nodded.

"Do you want us to take care of her?" said Fred looking at the trolley.

"Yeah, like we'll go look for more clues" said Shaggy as he and Scooby backed away. Given the choice coming up against the moth creatures was preferable to dealing with Velma just right now.

"Let's go to our room, walkies Velma" said Daphne brightly as they quickly wheeled the protesting trolley along the corridor to the girl's room.

Once inside Daphne held the trolley while Fred gently fished Velma out of the basket and sat her on the edge of the bed. Daphne carefully peeled the material away from Velma's face while Fred put a chair under the door handle.

"Jinkies that was horrible" exclaimed Velma when she could finally speak "Still put that stuff to one side I want to get it analysed, and get some of my face back."

"For sure this is still really sticky" said Daphne "I'll lay it sticky side up on the bed."

"At least the cocoon stuff wasn't sticky otherwise they would have never got me out of there. What I don't get is even though the boys got me out of the cocoon they couldn't break whatever it was they used to tie me up, must be some kind super-strong silk."

"Nope just good old-fashioned cable ties" said Daphne.

"Cable ties?" said Velma.

"Yep, come look at this Freddie."

"These are cocoon squirting moth people, why on earth would they use cable ties?" said Velma.

"Good point Vel, why indeed, but cable ties they are" said Fred.

"They do work quite well" said Daphne.

"I'd never have noticed. I guess they are quicker than the cocoon stuff they smothered me in as that took time to dry. They certainly are inescapable" Velma squirmed so as to emphasise the point.

"Man these are on tight no wonder you couldn't get free" said Fred.

"I noticed. Still at least my bike leathers stopped them from cutting into my skin too much."

"Wait a minute, let me look this up will you" Fred rummaged through his bag and pulled out a small battered note book and a magnifying glass. He knelt down to examine the ties holding Velma's wrists together.

"I thought so not only is there one cable-tie round her wrists, there are connected cable, like paper chains ties round each wrist, two sets in fact like two pairs of handcuffs" Fred examined the rest of Velma's bonds and made some notes "Man it's the same everywhere. They sure didn't want you getting free."

"The thought had crossed my mind as well. Now if you've quite finished using me for show and tell would one of you oblige with the scissors I've some blood I'd like to reunite with my limbs." Daphne fished some scissors out of her bag and handed them to Fred.

"Oh sure Vel, hang on a second" Fred's phone rang and he took the call "Shaggy and Scooby have spotted the creatures in the car-park near this room. Daph turn out the light we can see what they're doing."

Daphne turned out the light and she and Fred peeked out from behind the curtain.

"Daphne!" whispered Velma loudly.

"Shhhh, they're right outside!" said Daphne who then resumed observing the going on. After a few minutes Velma got bored, she managed to get to her feet and hop over to the window.

"That's a Velma size bag they're carrying" said Fred. The moth creatures were carrying a large bag towards a panel van, one of them unlocked the van and together they carefully loaded the bag inside. The creatures entered the van and soon emerged with tanks on their back. They shut the van then headed to the truck park.

"Into a very non-moth-like van. Looks like they were planning on taking you for a ride somewhere" said Daphne placing her arm round Velma to provide her some comfort and balance.

"Well thanks to Shaggy and Scooby I'm not in there. But where and why do they... wait how did they get the van? Either they stole it or they brought it here" said Velma.

"If we hurry we can follow them, c'mon girls" said Fred throwing the scissors on the bed, seconds later he and Daphne were out of the room pulling the door closed behind them.

"What is this, keep Velma tied-up day? Just get back here and free me already!" yelled Velma at the closed door. Carefully she hopped from the window towards the bed and the scissors. The room was dark and the hopping jiggled her glasses so she couldn't see clearly, the next thing she knew she was falling. She landed face down on the bed her glasses and the scissors went flying in different directions, her face felt strangely cold. She slid off the bed and landed on her back causing pain to rip through her already aching elbows and shoulders, she let fly with some very un-Velma like language."

"Huunguh! Mooogupf! Nulfp!" then she realised the cold she had felt on her face was the sticky patch she had previously been gagged with firmly reattaching itself to her mouth.

She managed to roll onto her front _Velma doesn't want to play anymore and would like to go home now_ she thought_._ She paused for a few seconds and closed her eyes and visualised the room, she replayed her fall and tried to imagine the effect it would have on the objects on the bed, she paid particular attention to where she had heard things land and the quality of the associated sound. Having compiled a list of possible places and an efficient search strategy she slowly wriggled off to hunt for the scissors.

"What took you so long?" asked Fred glancing over his shoulder as Velma shuffled to where the gang was hiding "we've been waiting nearly an hour for you."

"Like why are you walking like that?" Velma was standing with her knees tightly together and her elbows behind her back. Her hands were visible either side of her waist, in one was a pair of scissors.

"You both forgot to do something before you left." Velma looked pointedly at Fred and Daphne.

"What? Oh jeepers don't tell me we forget to…" said Daphne

"Yes you did, fortunately I can get my glasses back on without using my hands much, now it you wouldn't mind.'' Velma pressed the scissors into Daphne's hand. As soon as her knees were free she turned so Daphne could free her elbows "Shaggy would you press your hand over my mouth?"

"Why?"

"Just do it, hard, Fred cover Scooby's ears" Shaggy pressed his hand firmly over Velma's mouth and Fred covered Scooby's ears; Daphne cut the ties holding Velma's elbows together. Startled birds flew from nearby trees, everyone in the building paused as a sound like an angry lion shouting abuse into a pillow filled the air.

"Sorry guys" Velma blushed "I didn't want Scooby to hear any bad language I knew I'd just let rip when my elbows were freed. Jinkies that was just indescribably painful." Scooby gave Velma the thumbs up.

"What about the rest of the county" muttered Fred trying to get the ringing out of his ears.

"So what did I miss?"

"Well they've been going from trailer to trailer, some they've left alone other's they've picked the lock, gone inside for a while then locked the trailer up again. They've been back to the truck to refill the tanks on their back a couple of times as well."

"Guys we are so close to solving this mystery" said Velma.

"Like we still don't know where they people are based" said Shaggy.

"Ror rho rheir rames."

"Close but not close enough" said Fred.

"Seeing that bag go in the van gives me an idea though. If we could slip a homing beacon in it then we could follow their movements from a safe distance."

"So who plants the bug?" said Fred

"Don't look at me, let's play rock-paper-scissors to decide" said Shaggy.

"OK Shag, let's try that" said Daphne.

"Ready, on 3, 3… 2… 1…" said Fred

"Ow ow my shoulder" said Velma shaking her hand

Fred had made scissors as had Daphne, Shaggy and Velma had made paper.

"This is it, 3… 2… 1…"

"Ahhh that hurts" said Velma waving her hand again.

"I won! Velma made paper and I made scissors" Shaggy was jubilant.

"Come on, my shoulders hurt, no fair" complained Velma.

"Shaggy won fair and square" said Daphne "off you go, we've got your back."

"Oh all right, I guess I owe Shag one for saving me from the moth creatures" said Velma as she headed for the Mystery Machine.

Velma crept to the creatures van, it might have been the effect of her current attire but she did have a buzz about what she was doing. Mentally she could picture herself as more of a Hollywood super-spy than anything else as she crouched down in shadows close to the van waiting for the signal.

"All clear" Fred's voice came in through her ear-piece and set off. After a few seconds she had picked the lock and opened the door. On each side of the van were translucent plastic tanks joined by a hose at the base which lead to a pair of filling nozzles at the front. There were two empty racks for stowing equipment, the portable tanks most likely and there in the centre of the floor was the bag. Quietly she unzipped the bag and looked at the cocoon which had once held her. She looked into the cocoon, Shaggy and Scooby had used a couple of bath towels soaked in water to give the cocoon the appearance of weight, the water had mostly leaked out and evaporated now but it no longer mattered.

"Hide Velma, they've just appeared next to the van"

Velma looked around there was only one place to hide.

"All done, let's get going" said a voice.

"The door's open, didn't you lock it?" said a second voice.

"I thought I did, we'd better check inside" said the first voice.

Velma could hear equipment being stowed away followed by the doors closing then more sounds of movement.

"Nothing looks missing, better check on our guest to be sure" there was the further sound of movement and a zip being undone.

"She's got some fight in her the cocoons all cracked."

"Seal it closed she mustn't escape."

"I'll lock the bag shut with this padlock when we are finished repairing the cocoon."

_Aw come on guys give me a break_ thought Velma from within the cocoon, seconds later there came an all too familiar hissing noise.

"Homing beacon is active, signal strength 98 dB, GPS updates at two minute intervals, sending data to on-board navigation system now" said Daphne hunched over the tracking display.

"Wish it was homing bacon" said Shaggy.

"Reah racon" agreed Scooby.

"Homing bacon, now I remember why we have Shaggy and Scooby do the bait bit" said Fred wincing from Shaggy's joke.

As soon as the homing beacon was switched on Velma closed her eyes; it was pitch black in there so there wasn't much point in keeping them open. In the darkness she clenched her fist, getting used to the feeling of the carbon-knuckle glove. Those moth creatures were in for a big surprise when they got to where ever they were going. It was warm and dark in the cocoon, as the van moved down the road it gently rocked from side-to-side Velma's mind began to wander and her eyes began to involuntary close.


	10. To Sleep, Perchance to Scream

"Huh!" Velma woke with a start, wondering where she was and why she couldn't move.

"Peek-a-boo!"

"Aaaah!" Velma gave an involuntary cry as two moth creatures appeared a few inches away from her face. She glanced down at herself as best she could; she was lying on a metal table, every few inches down her body there was a wide canvas strap buckled as tightly as it would go, but as she wasn't connected to anything…

"Damn it, get her Sam" said one of the moth creatures as Velma kicked it across the room; she got to her feet and hopped away.

"Don't worry Debs I've got her" the other moth creature went for Velma with a flying tackle. Having recently had some hopping practice Velma managed to hop to the side and out of the way. Getting to the door Velma realised she hadn't had any practice at opening doors when in this state, especially when she found that her hands had been wrapped in sticky cocoon material. The few seconds she spent thinking about what to do lost her the advantage and she was tackled to the ground and dragged back into the room and dumped on a wheeled table.

"I don't know what game you two are playing but it's over now, Debby Kubickle," said Velma playing for time. There was silence as the creatures looked at each other.

"She knows too much."

_And talks too much _thought Velma.

"Time to make sure you stay put," said one of the creatures. Suddenly Velma was moving she craned round to see where she was going; towards some kind of machine, a conveyor belt with a number of arches over it by the looks of things. They placed some goggles over her glasses, after a few more moments of preparation they set the machine in motion. Velma's protests were silenced within seconds. It was all over in under a minute, there was a cocooned body shape where Velma had once been. The fresh cocoon gleamed white, with not a flaw to been seen.

"Perfect, seems a shame to spoil it," said one of the creatures.

"It's airtight, she'll suffocate in there," said the other.

"So? Oh all right, say I've an idea that will solve all our problems..."

Just as her lungs were exploding Velma found she could breathe again. Two holes in the cocoon had been made for her nostrils. The next second she could see as the goggles were cut away. The only thing Velma could move was her eyes. One of the creatures held up a mirror so Velma could see what was going on.

"Granddad was always fond of demonstrations" one of the creatures rolled Velma onto her side then put something behind her too keep her in place while the other wheeled a trolley in front of Velma. On the trolley was a large glass jar the size of a stew-pot, a fresh chicken and a large plastic jug of a clear green fluid.

"Right then" The jug was carefully emptied into the glass jar; it flowed like thick water and reminded Velma of lime jelly. It filled the jar to about 6 inches in depth. Using a pair of tongs the chicken was carefully lowered into the fluid. It took a few seconds for the reaction to become obvious, gas began to evolve, steam began to rise and there was a faint fizzing noise. The skin of the chicken changed colour and began to slough away slowly followed by the layers of muscle tissue. Eventually all that was left was slurry at the bottom of the jar and a few bones and scraps of cartilage. The bones themselves were discoloured and bendy.

"There's a big vat of that stuff outside with your name on it. Just time for one last ride on a conveyor belt," the creatures picked up Velma and carried her into a factory area.

Velma was usually quite stoic about things but watching the chicken slowly dissolve had broken her composure, though the noises she made were incoherent her eyes pleaded for mercy as she was placed on the conveyor belt feet first in the direction of travel so she would get a view as the belt slowly lowered her into the vat she was informed.

"Bye, send us a post card," said one of the creatures as one of them pressed a button and set the conveyor belt in motion. Finally it became all too much and she broke down in tears and screamed as best she could.

Meanwhile the rest of the gang were slowly exploring the building, they had earlier found the van, without the bag or cocoon and assumed that Velma was inside, probably prisoner of the moth people. They were walking down a corridor neat the heart of the building when they heard such a terrible cry that Shaggy and Scooby stopped dead in their tracks causing Fred and Daphne to walk into them.

"Do you hear that?" said Daphne taking hold of Fred's arm, she could feel his muscles tightening, he pointed at a nearby door "it came from in there" and they set off in the direction of the sound.

Moments later Fred, Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby burst through the door. They were standing on a walkway which ran around the top of a factory area. Velma's muffled cries of terror filler the air.

"What are they doing to her? It sounds ghastly." Daphne desperately scanned the room for the source of the noise.

"She's here somewhere, I can hear her but I can't see where," said Fred.

"Like what was Soylent Green made out of Scoob?" said Shaggy.

"Reople, rhy?"

"Well then that must mean Soylent _Orange_ is made of Dinkleys! Velma in danger on the starboard bow!" said Shaggy pointing at a long slow-moving conveyor belt leading to a large open vat, on which lay a solitary mummified figure.

"We see you Velma! We're here!" shouted Daphne.

None of them was close enough to notice so Velma let a few tears of relief flow when she realised that the gang were here and had seen her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw them split up and head off in various directions, out of sight but hopefully to her rescue. Velma strained to see what was going on and was rewarded with a cracking sound from the cocoon. Finally she could move more than her just eyes. She surmised that fumes from the vat were affecting the structure of the cocoon; they were certainly making her eyes itch. She strained some more, more cracking and move movement. The outer shell was still ridged but now brittle, underneath the material was more flexible, quite for how long Velma wasn't sure but was damn sure she would use the opportunity to try to get off the belt.

"Don't worry Velma we're coming" called Daphne, Velma looked round and from one corner Daphne swung down on a rope towards her, likewise from their respective corners swung Fred, Shaggy and Scooby, they all collided together in the air a few feet in front of her and landed in a heap on the conveyor belt.

_We really must practice this stuff more often _thought Velma as she looked at the crumpled pile of her comrades. Their sudden impact and weight on the belt caused it to shut-down; Velma managed to wriggle over to them, she briefly thought about which one of them would be the softest to land on but all considerations were put aside when the conveyer belt lurched into life again. She unceremoniously pushed them off in one go then followed them over as quickly as she could. Just as she tumbled off the equation for potential energy, mgh, flashed through her mind just before the floor did.

"Velma, wake up Velma" said Daphne, Velma's eyes fluttered open as something was waved under her nose; she pushed the sock away from her face, eyes watering once more.

"Like we didn't have any smelling salts" said Shaggy putting his sock back on. A short way away she could see Fred and Scooby keeping watch.

"Guys" Velma reached out and held tightly onto Daphne and Shaggy's forearms "Thank you, I thought I was done for. You are a sight for sore eyes." Shaggy and Daphne pretended not to notice the tears in Velma's eyes.

"Speaking of sore eyes" Shaggy rubbed his eyes.

"Yeah, let's get out of here, can you walk Velma?" said Daphne.

"I'll sure try" they helped Velma up and supported her till she was sure on her feet. "So what did you guys find?"

"Most importantly you" said Fred "what was it in that vat?"

"Stay clear of any vat. Whatever it is will dissolve you."

"Like how do you…?"

"Let's just say I know and leave it at that for now, please." replied Velma tersely.

"We'll just check a couple more rooms then we're leaving," said Fred.

"Best plan you've ever had," said Velma.

"But to answer your question on the surface the place looks like a discussed factory, all the activity is hidden away inside," said Daphne.

"The vat contains what they are adding to the soap powder to dissolve clothes," said Velma, reluctant as she was to speak about dissolving anything it was a clue she knew she needed to share with the rest of the gang.

The gang proceeded check through the few rooms which opened onto the factory floor, each contained various chemicals so as keep them separate until they were mixed together. The chemicals were as Velma expected based on what she had found out about the K-T process.

"Well we've got the how they are doing it, still not sure why and we don't know who," said Daphne as they walked towards the last set of doors.

"I just remembered, I have a name we can search on when we get back, Debbie Kubickle," said Velma.

"How?" said Fred.

"They spoke good English for moth people, one called the other 'Debs' short for Debbie I expect."  
>"Like unless that was what she was called before she was turned into a moth creature. The person on the radio said they had seen people being turned into moth people."<p>

"I'll stick with our standard people in masks hypothesis until we get any further evidence." Velma pushed a set of double doors and strode in.

"Like that kind evidence perhaps?" said Daphne as she stared into a room full of moth people. Velma had walked straight into their midst before she realised what she had done.

Velma cried out in surprise and instinctively dropped to the ground to escape. The creatures seemed to be falling over themselves to get hold of her. Velma thrashed out in all directions to fight them off desperate not to end up in another cocoon. Fred, Shaggy and Daphne joined in the fray and soon antennae and moth scale were flying in all directions. In all the confusion Scooby grabbed hold of some papers he saw lying in the waste-paper bin next to the door then grabbed hold of Shaggy and raced out of the door pulling him along with him. Shaggy managed to grab hold of Daphne who grabbed hold of Fred who pulled a still thrashing Velma out by the collar of her jumper. Scooby didn't stop, aside from when he encountered a vending machine, until they were all inside the Mystery Machine. Fred drove off while the rest of the gang sank into a pile in the back.

"Like we made it," said Shaggy leaning back against Velma who had stopped thrashing and was now trying to clean her glasses.

"No harm done," said Daphne sitting next to Shaggy, resting against the side of the van "Shaggy?" Shaggy had gone pale and was pointing at Daphne mouthing the letter 'm'.

Velma turned to see what the problem was, the next second Velma fainted, Daphne's head was now that of a moth creature.


	11. Off With Their Heads

"What's wrong?" Daphne tried to get a handle on what was happening. Shaggy and Scooby were trying to hide behind each other while pointing at her head and that something had caused Velma to faint.

"Guys, there's something in my hair isn't there?"

"Emmmmm like you could say that," quivered Shaggy.

"Reah, rair."

Daphne took out her pocket mirror and gingerly checked.

"Ewwww get it off, get it off, get if off!" Daphne tore at her head when she saw her reflection.

"Like we'll save you Daph!"

Velma came round to the commotion in the back, it looked like Shaggy and Scooby were trying to pull Daphne's moth-head off. She was just about to join in when she noticed that Shaggy had dropped a bag of toffees from his pocket; she retrieved the bag and proceeded to surreptitiously store the toffees away in a safe place.

"Uh… nearly… got… it… off…"

"Those are my ears!"

With a tearing and popping sound the head came off, Daphne flying in one direction, Shaggy and Scooby in the other, both into the sides of the van. Daphne felt her face, she was back to normal.

"Oh that's much better."

Shaggy held up the head "Oh I dunno Daph, antennae suit you."

"I'll ignore that remark, Velma, your back with us?" said Daphne noticing that Velma was starting to sit up.

"Like what are you eating Vel?" said Shaggy.  
>"Mufingh."<p>

"Are those sweet wrappers on the floor next to you?" said Daphne.

"Mo."

"My toffees!" Shaggy leapt for the bag in Velma's hand. Soon wrappers were flying every which way as the battle for toffees descended into a tickle-fight. Daphne sighed, retrieved the moth head and stuck it back on her head to drown out the noise.

"No Scooby you can't join me in here."

Shaggy and Velma were all tickled out by the time they reached HQ but Fred had Daphne sit between them just to be on the safe side as they sat down in the conference room to discuss what they had found.

"One thing we do know is that the moths that fell on us were just dummies dressed in moth costumes," said Daphne placing the moth head the table as she sat down,

"Yeah, so I hope the real moth people are just as fake," said Shaggy.

"We should examine the head to see if we can find out where it was made then find out who ordered them," said Velma.

"Well where to begin?" said Fred picking up the white-board marker and walking to the whiteboard.

"I'm tired and I want to go home," said Velma resting her head on Daphne's shoulder.

"Right Velma's tired…" Fred started to write on the board.

"Like me too," said Shaggy flopping against Daphne.

"So's Shaggy, hmmm there's a pattern emerging."

"I am not a pillow!" yelled Daphne. Fred turned, as he did so Shaggy and Velma sat bolt upright and looked attentive as they could be.

"'I am not a pillow?' Daph you do come out with such random stuff at times, I'm not an orange but I don't go shouting about it. Come on Daph stay with us here." Before she could reply Fred turned his back and faced the board.

Shaggy and Velma started to lean towards Daphne but at the last minute she leant back so they fell into each other, then onto her legs, this caused her chair to topple over and they all ended up in a pile on the floor. Fred didn't even look round.

"So Scooby, do _you_ have anything constructive to bring to this meeting?"

"Reah rapers," said Scooby holding up what he had found in the commotion at the factory.

"Right Scoob let's see what you've found."

Fred and Scoobyy set out the papers on the table and as soon as the others had untangled themselves they all set to work analysing their latest finds.

"These look like invoices and letters, we might get some names and some leads," said Daphne.

"I want to know who that Miss T. Kubickle is, the one who did the lift 'repair' at the library," said Fred holding up a copy of a page from the library's visitors book.

"Hmmm the names the moths used were Debs and Sam, Debbie and Samantha I suspect, but who could be the T?"

"Found it!" Shaggy held up some paper, opening it out so Velma could see "Found out who 'T' is."

"Oh my," said Velma looking over his shoulder.

"Is this for real?" said Fred as Shaggy passed him the paper.

"That's just so wrong," said Daphne.

"Well now we've solved that little mystery it's time to bring home the bacon." said Fred.

"It's only a figure of speech guys, no actual bacon is involved," said Velma on seeing how excited Shaggy and Scooby had become "But Fred's right, this looking for clues business is getting too dangerous, for me especially..."

"Like and my toffees," interjected Shaggy.

"...as I was saying, time to go on the offensive."

"It's trap setting time!" said Daphne standing up and punching the air "Whoops sorry, over to you Fred."

"Thanks Daph but what I was going to say was..."

"It's bed time!" said Shaggy and Velma.

"Close but first I was going to say... I've got a plan!" said Fred proudly after which there was silence.

"And?" said Daphne after a while.

"Oh yeah, we're going into business!"

"Doing what?" said the gang.

"Manufacturing washing-up powder, this time we build the bait, Shaggy and Scooby get the day off."

"Wo-ho!" Fred was almost knocked off his feet as he was embraced by Shaggy and Scooby.

"Like we're not worthy man, we're not worthy,"

"Well OK if you put it like that we'll go back to how we usually do things."  
>"Re're rothy! Re're rothy!"<p>

"OK guys just kidding. Right let's go home and catch some shut-eye." Seconds later Fred was in an empty building. "I'll lock up then shall I?"

The next morning saw the gang hard at work laying the foundation for their trap. Daphne and Velma were to work on the soap power and other chemicals needed to make it looks like manufacturing was underway while Fred, Shaggy and Scooby would build the factory in an empty building down-town. All wear wearing their regular clothes; all except Velma who wore the bike-leathers from yesterday.

"Like Vel is the zip stuck?"

"No, I'm not so creaky now and this way my jumpers stay safe. Plus all I need to do is to give it a quick polish and they're good for another day. I've even brought the matching gloves with me in case my hands get cold."

The final planning was done and they set to their respective tasks.

"Make just your stains history with all new Stain Pounder? Hmmmmm. Keep your clothes lose your stains with the Dirt Cleaver? No." said Velma to herself chewing the end of her pencil "Another reason I never went into marketing." Her musings were interrupted by the sound of a muffled explosion from one of the labs. She hurried to the lab to help Daphne; fans were at full blast venting the room of smoke and fumes.

"Are you sure you don't want to swap?" said Velma leading Daphne out of the lab.

"No, I'm just a bit rusty at chemistry that's all."

"Well unless you want to spend the next few weeks re-growing your eyebrows I suggest you at least let me help, then you can help me. I've hit a brick-wall on this marketing stuff."

"Deal."

Meanwhile across town Fred, Shaggy and Scooby were setting up 'Coolsville Cleaners' the front company that was to be the bait. They were building a 'factory'; mostly out of cardboard boxes and tubes glued together then painted to look like machinery and metal pipes.

"This is going to be awesome," said Fred as they were putting the finishing touches on their creation.

"Yeah man," said Shaggy as he finished drawing the buttons on the 'control panel' "like _all_ the dials go to 11."

Finally all the elements of the trap were together. Daphne and Velma drove the soap samples over in a rental van while the boys worked with a local TV crew to produce an advert. It was tacky and cheap but would do the job. A mannequin dressed in a jumper, shirt and jeans had balloons filled with helium attached to it. The balloons had words like 'stain, 'dirt' and 'grime' written on them, these Shaggy popped them using his catapult to leave the clothes clean and unharmed. They had arranged some covert shipments of unaffected soap powder from out of town, delivered by another route, just in case they did get some customers. Police had the building where the dissolving chemical was being made under discrete surveillance so the gag would have some warning when they could be expecting visitors, not long after the ad had aired a van was seen leaving the building and heading towards the factory.

"Right I've focussed all my trap karma on this!" Fred gesticulated in the direction of the trap they had just finished.

"Yeah," said Daphne with a dismissive edge to her voice as she viewed the large spider's web construction made out of duct-tape and the assortment of sports equipment piled in the corner.

"It's simple, this store of soap and the factory has lured the creatures here, when they get close Vel and I will jump out from behind the soap boxes and surprise them causing them to head towards the slope, Shaggy will use a bat to make them jump up so Daph can push a skateboard under them then Scooby will use another bat…"

"Hockley stick," corrected Velma.

"…to push them down the slope and into the web. What could possibly go wrong?" said Fred.

"I've compiled a list but we don't have the time to go through it just right now," said Velma.

"Why?"

"You could start by looking behind you." Fred turned to see two moth creatures and the grub slip in through the door.

"Crikies places everyone!" there was a brief flurry of activity then all was quiet.

"Fred, what do we do about the grub? We didn't plan on that showing up," whispered Velma.

"We need to improvise, what have you got on you?"

"A few post-it notes, some balloons that didn't get used during the shoot, a pen, my keys, loose change… not much I'm afraid."

"Fill one balloon with this glue and a couple with liquid soap." Fred reached for a container of glue they had used in making the 'factory' "I'll start filling some of the others with helium." While they did the two moth creatures began to explore the factory while the grub patrolled the exit.

Soon a train of balloons floated high in the air towards the grub.

"It's not cooperating," whispered Daphne as the grub refused to play its part and head to where the balloons were.  
>"They eat wool right, that's what the science guy in the cave said," said Fred "so if we take that jumper we used in the advert then..."<p>

"Be, be brave," whispered Velma choking back the tears "I'll remember you." She stroked the jumper reassuringly then handed it over to Fred.

"Oh for crying out loud not again," whispered Daphne.

"Look Velma it's not a sweater you know personally," said Shaggy comforting Velma.

"But, but it reminds me of Jamie, my cashmere cardigan."

"Which is safe in your house right?" Velma nodded "Like this is for woollen clothing everywhere."

Fred tied some rope to the sleeve of the jumper then threw it near the grub.

"I can't watch," said Velma peeking out from behind her fingers as the grub stopped, it moved its head from side-to-side as it sensing the air. Fred tugged the jumper, moving it slightly closer to him. The grub began to follow slowly.

"Don't worry Vel, we've got this covered, Shag get ready," said Fred.

Shaggy took out his catapult and took aim at the glue filled balloon. Fred flicked then pulled the rope, the sweater jumped into the air, the grub readied itself. Velma shut her eyes. Daphne braced herself and held out her arms.

"Now!" said Fred pulling hard on the rope, Shaggy fired, the grub lunged; Velma swooned into Daphne's arms. The jumper flew out of the way, the next instant the glue landed right on the grubs landing spot sticking it fast the moment it landed. Shaggy fired at the other balloons spilling liquid soap on and around the rear of the creature. The grub thrashed around, with the front stuck fast and the rear covered in soap there was nowhere for it to go. After a few moments it was still, Fred dashed over to the grub to try securing it while Velma dashed to free to the jumper and check that it was ok. Just as Fred reached the grub there was a crackling sound as the motor shorted out causing it to thrash around for a second. The sudden motion caught Fred by surprise, knocking him into the wall; he lay on the floor to stunned to move. The commotion attracted the attention of the moth creatures who headed directly for Fred with their hands outstretched.

"Daphne! Freddie down, plan B!" yelled Velma, she put down the jumper, reached into her pocket and rushed to Fred's side. Suddenly the room was filled with the sound of hissing and spluttering, the moth creatures stopped their advance when it tuned into a growling, nasal roaring noise. Shaggy and Scooby were equally baffled as the noise seemed to come from Daphne and Velma.

"Ha!" Velma leapt forward and punched the lead creature between its antennae, it staggered back flailing its arms for balance knocking the other one back with it. "Carbon-knuckle gloves, you gotta love 'em. Now Shaggy!"

"Fore!" Shaggy swung at the creatures with a cricket bat causing them to jump back, right onto the glue-covered skateboard Daphne had slid onto their landing spot. As planned Scooby then used a hockey stick to push them towards the net.

"Touchdown!" shouted Shaggy as they landed in the net quickly getting stuck to and tangled in it.

"You spike them in the end zone," said Fred as he got to his feet.

"The library staff should be able to identify which one sabotaged the lift," Fred as the police officers walked through the door.

"Yeah and as for the cover name, Miss T Kubickle, Miss _Terri_ Kubickle oh p-lease" said Daphne.

"Right kids, let's take it from the top," said the senior officer of the group,

"Oh jinkies is that the time" Velma whispered to herself when she looked at her watch, she took a deep breath and pulled the moth heads from the two creatures to reveal two similar looking women.

"OK then one of these is Debbie the other is Samantha which explains how both Daph and I were attacked at the same time, they are both related to a Dr Kubicle, an industrial chemist, who with a colleague developed a process for removing oils and grease, works great in industry not so great in domestic setting as it can rot clothes. These two decided that by sabotaging the city's soap supplies and the fire suppression systems of the main clothing stores people would by clothes from their on-line stores and that their clothing manufacturing business would also pick up a load of orders in addition the traffic on their giant moths web-site would allow them to sell more advertising…"

"Breathe Velma," said Fred, she did and ploughed on.

"They are both smart so could come up with the animatronic grub which attacked Daphne and the giant moth which has been seen about the city and attacked Shaggy, Scooby and I it is based on a model jet plane which explains the cooked waffle batter Daph found. They are also decent enough chemists in their own right to come up with the cocoon spray they used on Daphne and I. I also expect that one of them was the lady who ran into the diner claiming she had been attacked by the moth a few days ago if you recall, Right that's my bit done you take it from here Fred, need to be off now, see you all day after tomorrow" Velma headed for the door "need emm, need to meet someone at the airport, help them with luggage you understand," and with that she dashed out the door.

"Was that the quickest reveal we've ever done?" said Fred looking at his watch.

"That _was_ a bit of a let-down," said one sister to the other.

"Yeah our scheme was way more detailed than that," said the other.

"Velma's gone already? Man she usually spends ages doing this," said Shaggy.

"I think that tells us all we need to know," said Daphne smugly.

"It'll do for now. So then what have you two got to say for yourselves?" said one of the officers looking at the two sisters.

"We never touched shops used for children's clothes or poorer people."

"Rich and poor wash their clothes; it's just that some can't afford to replace them after they've been dissolved. This has caused real hardship for some," said Daphne angrily.

"But we didn't harm anyone."

"Reality check, you nearly murdered Daphne once, Velma twice and almost caused us to have a bike crash," said Shaggy.

"We never thought we'd go that far, we just got carried away," said one of the sisters as the reality of what they had done finally hit home, the other one nodded.

"Well now you'll get carried away" said Shaggy as the police officers took the sisters away.

As expected Velma didn't put in an appearance the next day, but she did the day after that. They had paperwork to finish, expense forms to fill in and reports to write for the authorities. Now that the moth threat had been eliminated 'Danny' made a welcome reappearance along with the rest of her regular clothing. If that was all back to normal Velma wasn't, she spent much of the morning staring out of window with goofy grin on face. To Daphne she was quite 'floaty', distracted even and, for Velma, quite chipper. Daphne's 'romance meter' was off the scale but when she queried Fred on Velma's behaviour he put it down to blocked sinuses.

The meeting droned on as they compiled a time-line of events, finally they got to the showdown; there was one nagging question in the boy's mind.

"Man how did you make those scary noises?" asked Shaggy.

Daphne and Velma had a fit of the giggles then got out their phones and played the clips.

"It's you two snoring!" they said simultaneously.

"We _don't_ snore" replied Fred and Shaggy indignantly.

Shaggy stood up, placing his hands on the table "Impossible!" he declared.

"Reah, ron't rore" Scooby appeared most hurt at the accusation.

"The evidence is clear," said Velma "but I will just say we utilised naturally produced sound effects during the apprehension of the Kubicle sisters in the official report." With that Daphne and Velma headed into the kitchen, it was the girl's turn to get the coffee and doughnuts, the boys needed something unnecessarily fattening to help heal their wounded pride.

"The poor dears, after all men do snore, all men snore isn't that right?" laughed Daphne laying the bait.

"True, even Gustav does," said Velma.

Daphne sidled up to Velma and said quietly "Even after a night of passionate love-making?"

"Oh _especially_ after a night of…" began Velma wistfully then immediately covered her mouth while going a deep-red colour. Daphne smiled, closed and locked the door to the kitchen then sat down next to Velma; the boys could wait, solving the mystery of Velma's love-life could not, plus they had the doughnuts.


End file.
